Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to Me,’ declares the Lord of hosts, ‘that I may return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty.-Zechariah 1:3

Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.-Isaiah 55:7

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.-Psalm 34:18

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. Proverbs 11:2  

 

A Prodigal Prayer

Come home, for your father is waiting
Come home He’s been searching for you.
He’s been watching and waiting, hoping and praying
And He knows just what you’ve been through.
Come home for your father is waiting
Come home he still stands vigil for you,
With eternal compassion and love never ending;
Come home you’ll find out it’s true.
He will run to meet you,
He will give you his ring.
He will throw you a party,
And the whole family will sing.
Music will play, wine will be flowing,
You will be honored, loved and adored.
There will be joy and laughter, all will rejoice,
When you’ve chosen to be lost no more.
Give in, your home is still waiting;
Give in, simply kneel down and pray.
No need to feel shame just simple repentance
Just tell Him you’re sorry for walking away.
©Linda Troxell 12/05/2017

 

What do you think is the cause of most problems in friendships, in marriages, in families, indeed in the world? Is it the refusal to forgive? Hardheartedness? Is it stubbornness? How about unwillingness, to understand the other’s point of view? Or perhaps you think it’s greed.

Well, I think it’s pride. Because I believe that if we examine all of those other conditions we will find pride at their root. Pride, also known as hubris, is considered to be the original of the 7 deadly sins as well as the most serious. It is sometimes said that it is a perversion of dignity and holiness, the very characteristics that make humans most like God.

Pride is always a problem, but when it is out of control it becomes dangerous and selfishly corrupt. Pride can cause a person to put their own desires above the welfare of others. When it is very severe, it can lead a person to believe in their own superiority. In turn, that causes them to reason that if they are better than others, then they must also be more important than others.

They begin to exaggerate their own accomplishments and minimize the accomplishments of others. At some point, pride can cause a person to believe that they have no faults and so they can never be wrong. When it’s this severe, it seems that pride has caused the person to forget that they are merely human and they begin to take on the air of the divine.

Isn’t this just what the devil did? He began to believe he was superior to God.  In Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis writes: “…it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.”[38] The Bible simply says: When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. Proverbs 11:2  

Now admittedly these levels of pride are not common and they venture into the mental disorder of narcissism. However, as the Bible points out in many places, the level or intensity of a sin is not really relevant. And it takes only a look at the behavior of the Pharisees to see that some character flaws, when given a chance, can grow quickly out of control. And pride by its very nature, prevents us from recognizing it in ourselves. 

The worst part of pride and the reason it is at the root of most problems is that it separates us from God. When we are full of pride, it is almost impossible to humble ourselves enough to admit our sins and repent of them to God. Isn’t this the message of the parable of the Prodigal Son.

The younger brother was so full of himself, so full of pride, that he thought he was capable of taking his inheritance money and heading for the big city leaving behind his demanding father and his boring life. In requesting his inheritance while his father was still living he showed total disrespect for tradition and authority and disregard for how it would affect others. His only concern was his desire to pursue pleasure.

Of course the prodigal, who had practically no life experience, was unable to properly manage his money. But when it began to run out his pride prevented him from humbling himself and going home to his father. So he kept doing what he was doing and before long his money was gone. But still, he was unable to summon the humility to go home.

Finally, when he hadn’t eaten for weeks and he was filthy and cold and hungry, the results of his unwise actions brought him to despair. He began to think that even his father’s slaves lived better than he was living and going beyond humility to shame, he decided to crawl back to his father and ask for enough mercy to be allowed to serve as his slave.

Unfortunately, it is not much different for any of us when we stray from our walk with God. When we finally come to our senses we find it very difficult to let go of our pride and humble ourselves enough to ask for God’s forgiveness. Oh, we make all kinds of excuses like, “Well, I’m afraid He won’t forgive me after what I’ve done.” And, “I’m afraid that I’ve been gone too long and He won’t want me back.”

But that’s not the real story. We know that God wants us back just as soon as we repent and ask for His forgiveness. The Bible is full of stories and scripture telling us that God wants us back no matter what we’ve done just as soon as we are ready to repent. For example, we are told in Zechariah how the Lord feels when one of His children is gone astray: Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to Me,’ declares the Lord of hosts, ‘that I may return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty.–Zechariah 1:3  

 The reality is that we know that God wants us back, but usually, after a period in which we have not practiced humility daily, we find it difficult to give up the pride that has grown unwieldy in that period of time. You see pride is insidious. It takes on a life of its own very quickly making it difficult to uproot it from our life.

This may be because our sinful nature is drawn to pride and the enemy plays on that convincing us we deserve to be celebrated more. Or perhaps it’s because we have been indoctrinated to believe that to be humble is to be weak and weak is undesirable. Or perhaps it’s some of each. I do know that the best way to keep pride at bay is to practice humility each and every day.

But that isn’t the end of the story. Because when the young son finally comes home, head down, tail between his legs, as they say, his father is joyous beyond words. It might be hard for us to tell from the parable just how over the top happy the father was because we are not familiar with the Hebrew culture of the time.

But for an older man, of that culture in that time, to run was shameful and undignified. It just wasn’t done. So when the son saw his father run to meet him he was probably confused. Expecting to have to beg to be allowed to serve his father, instead, he saw him run to meet him and heard him order a party. I’m sure he was relieved, yet, still confused.  

For those of us who have children the end of this story is not so surprising. I think that most parents have no problem understanding just how that father felt. He thought he had lost his beloved son forever and now here he is, in one piece and basically healthy. There is no greater joy.

And God feels the same way about his children, you and me. When we stray he is not angry, he is sad, he is worried, he sits and waits for us to return. In the story of the prodigal son, the father represents God. Jesus told the story to illustrate how God feels about us, that each and every one of us is precious to Him.

No matter how long we’ve been gone and no matter what we have done while we’ve been gone, He wants us to return. Isaiah tells us this about how God feels when one of His own is lost: Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.–Isaiah 55:7.

But we cannot come back to God, we cannot abide in Him, unless and until we can humble ourselves. Because pride comes along with a hard heart and even God cannot penetrate the heart hardened by pride. But He will be sitting on the porch waiting and watching and the minute he sees that you have become humble He will run to you, He will embrace you and He will throw a party for your safe return. Hurry, He’s waiting for you!

 

Points for Prayer and Pondering

 

1. What do you think about pride, do you believe it is the root of most problems in the world? Do you struggle with it? Write about a time when you struggled with pride 
2. Have you ever turned away from God, even for a day, and had to humble yourself to ask for His forgiveness? How long did it take you to humble yourself once you knew you had to do so? 
3. How do you resist pride in your daily life? How do you keep yourself humble on a daily basis?