Pride vs. God

These last few weeks I have been very busy. I have been in two states (apart from my own), I have been working alot, been sick, and visited with family & friends. I have been about as far from what I'd consider a normal "routine" for me as I have been in a long while. I felt a little bit like I was losing perspective on pretty much everything.

Then, in the last week or so, I noticed a trend in what God has been saying to me through my devotions. I am reading through the Bible on a schedule with my church and thus the passages I'm reading are not "by choice" but "by direction." It always interests me to see what God shows me in a book I would not normally consider for spiritual growth (like Leviticus...) and how it intersects with the other books I'm reading (like Acts). The trend lately has been as follows:

• Be faithful to God as He is faithful to me. (Definitely as hard as you could possibly dream it would be. We truly are fallen creatures.)
• Trust God fully because He knows me (and everything else) more intimately that I can imagine. (This bashed me over the head from praying over the first verse of Psalm 24 this last weekend, although I have noticed it in other passages lately as well)
• Give over & let go of your control in EVERY situation and emotion. This ties into the previous 2 things, but has a separate connotation. It means that I am humble, and strive to be teachable and have integrity (a co-worker pointed this out from Psalm 25:4-5).

Now, these are all fabulous lessons that I am still learning, and I'm not sure there will ever come a day when I have completed those lessons (if I think I get there, it'll mean I need to take a good, hard look, and most likely start over). They are not easy, but they are definitely good.

Last night as I read Pride & Prejudice (one of the current "for fun" choices), I came across this statement from the (somewhat distant) sister, Mary: "Pride is a very common failing I believe...human nature is particularly prone to it..." It hit me that the sin of pride is one of the largest reasons we as humans do not trust God (we can do it ourselves, and probably better anyway) and strive to keep control and power over situations, others, etc., (why would you ever let someone else run your life?) and this all leads us to be unfaithful to our Creator.

I challenge you to examine your heart, and the depths of your soul. Where are you in this line of thinking? Do you strive to follow Him, and find yourself messing up, confessing, and striving again? Or, do you just think you can do things better and thus push God further from yourself?

When we admit that we can't do it alone, that we need His perfect guidance, we see blessings, we see growth. We need to strive for the perfect holiness that He demonstrates. We need to be teachable, we need to be humble. That is a very hard lesson in the world we live in. But it is necessary if we ever want to truly glorify the One who saves us. And when we do these things, our perspective shifts and even the hardest of tasks or situations are easier (not easy, mind you) because He is leading.

That's the greatest blessing of all.