Pride's Abatement

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

    and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him,

    and he will make your paths straight.

-Proverbs 3:5-6

TRICK #3: The Pride of Life – After luring Eve into dialogue regarding the seemingly harmless topic of fruit, Satan then injected doubt regarding God’s goodness into the conversation.

Satan didn’t just have his foot in the door at this point, He was renting space in Eve’s head and heart. As Eve pondered the Deceiver’s proposition of autonomy, independence, and entitlement under the guise of a harmless debate, Satan had already been given a key, moved in, and made himself right at home in Eve’s heart and mind.

“Eve-baby. You know, since YOU brought this up, and we’re already talking about God, I’m gonna do you a favor and let you in on a little secret: Truth is... the REAL reason He doesn’t want you eating this lovely piece of delish is because He knows it’ll make you God’s equal. That’s right! You’ll be just as awesome as Him, maybe even better! He set a boundary because He’s scared you’ll do a better job than Him. Honestly Evie-baby, I’ve been watching you in this garden for a while. Quite frankly, with your ideas, your motivation, and unparalleled work ethic: I’m 100% confident you’re the right gal for the job! I even took the liberty of making these ‘Eve for God’ buttons. Let’s go hand ‘em out to all our new friends!”

The Pride of Life is a real bugger. Isn't it truly and literally ironic that those marching in "PRIDE" parades wave God's symbol of judgment and wrath postponed? Proverbs 16:18 states, "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." Hmmmmm.

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In Genesis 3:6a we read, “Then the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, so she took some and ate it...”

The tree, which had previously been another tree among the others, was now the exclusive tree on Eve’s radar. She was dialed in, laser-focused, and quickly became obsessed with forbidden allure. Then, Eve willfully exercised a coup d’état against God and elected herself the new, improved, and rightful ruler of her own private garden.

Jesus was presented with a similar temptation from Satan. It came as an invitation to rule. (paraphrase) “Jesus, buddy. See that glorious landscape? It's all mine. The hills - mine. Fields - mine. Oceans, animals, kingdoms, and rulers - mine, mine, mine, and mine! Here’s the deal: Unlike the greedy Father of heaven, I’m the kind-and-giving sort. I’m willing to permit YOU to rule over everything. It’ll be like it’s ours. You know, a ‘tag-team-effort’ kinda thing. Whatdaya say, huh? Just bow low and worship me, and voila!”

When I get to heaven, I'm planning on asking Jesus if He laughed inwardly or aloud when Satan offered Him authority over all things. Satan’s empty promise would be like someone trying to lure Bill Gates in with monopoly money!

Jesus responded, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.”

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We will be tempted today, tomorrow, and every day in-fact until God calls us home or Jesus returns. Satan will continually attempt to deceive us. Like Eve, he seeks to make us believe we are the rightful rulers of our own private lives in our own private universes.

Satan wants us to buy into the lie that we are the CAPTAINS of our OWN destinies. He wants to lure us into thinking our lives are our own. He wants to trick us into thinking our decisions don’t really affect anyone but us. He deceives us into believing “it’s not a big deal,” or “I deserve this,” or “I’m entitled.”

It always starts out innocently enough. Then, before we know it, sin is camped-out in the middle of our living room with thick roots running through, around, and beneath our foundation - directly to the core of our hearts.

What’s the solution? Christ. His life. His death. His RESURRECTION! His power. His authority. Invite Christ to be the Lord of your life – top to bottom - and everything in between. He already knows the sin is there, but help only comes when we repent and ask.

Step 1: Rejoice! 1 Thess 5:16-18, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Rejoice in Christ and what He has done!

Step 2: Seize! 2 Cor 10:5b, “...take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Step 3: Be Transformed.  Romans 12:2, “...be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Let God do the work! Our part is to simply allow it to happen.

Step 4: Reassess. 2 Cor 13:5, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith...” That’s not self-help garbage. We have to compare our lives with the objective standard of God’s Word and ask, “Is there evidence of transformation? Is Christ truly living in and through me?”

Step 5: Repeat.

Sound impossible? For us, yes. For God, no. That’s why we need Christ - not Christian culture. That’s why we need the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit - not morality. That’s why we need to trust in God with ALL our heart and submit/commit ALL our ways to Him. That’s when pride finally abates and the narrow path of life is made straight right before us.

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com