30 August 2012

Journal Musings - Pride

Somehow, in some infinite heavenly way, God is interested in me. He is focused on me, even at times when I go about feeling like I might be invisible (and not just because I am as pale as a ghost).
It seems like it would be the easiest thing, then, to fully embrace God and really let Him in to be the center, right?
It's hard because we cannot see or touch God, so it is based on faith that we have to trust.
We hope for things we cannot see, so our faith can flourish in the uncertainty. Our faith can grow even when our lives are surrounded by question marks.

In fact, lately, I have felt like a floating island in a sea of question marks, and if I let myself, I could spend all day worrying and asking "what if" and fretting over what may or may not happen. But I mostly choose (and yes it is a choice) to focus on the good: the gifts that God has given me this moment. When I focus on saying thank you to God for each little joy in my day, I am recognizing that these good things are only possible because of God. He is the source of it all. It's not coming from me in any way.

It's when we start to think that something good happened because we are smart, wise, strong, experienced, or clever, we begin to reek of pride. According to C.S. Lewis, pride is the worst of all sins because all vices stem from pride. We make ourselves a god with pride.
Pride is what made Satan. Pride is what caused man to fall. Satan approached us saying, 'hey, do you want to know everything? Do you want to be a god? Here, do this and you won't need God because you will be as great as God.'
That's how Satan lures us in. Pride.

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