The insanity of pride

In pride, King Nebuchadnezzar walked the roof of his palace and looked out over the city, claiming, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30) Before the words left his mouth, God spoke judgment and this king became insane. In stark mental illness, he lived in the fields, ate grass, and became wild in appearance for seven years.

Would modern clinics and hospitals be large enough if that happened to every proud person? Or even to those who were leaders and thought they got where there are by their own glory? Probably not, yet there is still an insanity in pride.

Pride begins in the heart and leaks out as I boast about myself, as if I did whatever I did without any help at all. No one can say that. Even the first steps of a child depend on the encouragement of family and the strength of inherited genes. All skills are perfected with instruction and opportunities to practice. Boasting as if I did anything by myself is nonsense.

The insanity of pride also forgets God. Nebuchadnezzar did that and so do I. The Apostle Paul offers a sharp rebuke. He says, “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). That tells me that if it was not for the grace of God, I could not take another breath. To pridefully think and talk as if I have done something or I am responsible for my own success forgets the One by whose power and goodness I am even alive.

Pride also becomes unreasonable. In focusing on ‘me, myself, and I,’ I lose focus on the realities around me. I begin to think only of what will promote my own glory and make me look even better than I already think I am. This self-focus is the primary root of sin, and by pridefully clinging to it, I cannot love and obey God or love my neighbor. All I can think about is, “I want what I want.” Pride is selfish and unloving.

The insanity resulting from pride in Nebuchadnezzar intrigues me. In our world, psychiatrists label almost everything as some form of mental illness. Everything from over-active children to depressed people grieving a loss are in danger of getting their condition labeled. Yet pride? It is not an illness but encouraged! Don’t the mental health experts say that people need to take pride in themselves and in what they do?

This is in sharp contrast to the Bible’s opinion of pride and its consequences. Notice what Nebuchadnezzar said after his descent into living like an animal ended…

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” (Daniel 4:34–35)

When this man’s mental faculties came back to him, he praised and honored God. He realized that God’s kingdom endures (Nebuchadnezzar had lost his kingdom), and the people of the earth were nothing compared to this God who does His own will. No one has the right to question Him or anything He does.

God is God. We are not. He tells us to humble ourselves, yet in that command I recognize I am already low. What He wants is me to realize it, not boast or elevate myself. God is love, holiness, right, true, all-powerful, just. I am none of those things. Whatever I do, it is by His permission, and if what I do is good, that is by His power. By myself, I can do nothing.

Pride is the opposite attitude; God is nothing and I am everything. This is not only the height of arrogance, but a colossal lie. Even writing these words makes my fingers feel weird, as if they are betraying what is right and good. Yet I’m so often guilty of pride, boasting. Elevating myself above others in one thing, but to think that I know more than God --- and I do every time I grumble about the way He rules my life --- I am as guilty as King Nebuchadnezzar. Why does God not take all good things away from me and send me to the fields to eat grass?

There is only one answer; God is gracious and merciful. His love extends beyond my folly. He looks at me through the bloody sacrifice of His Son and sees that my sin is covered. The death angel passes over and I’m given life, His life. I do not deserve even the least of His mercies. There is no place in anyone’s life for the insanity of pride.

Saved by Grace

As a noun, grace has many meanings; one dictionary offers five. Grace can be elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action. It can be a pleasing or attractive quality or endowment; favor or goodwill, a manifestation of favor, especially by a superior; or mercy; clemency and pardon.

My Bible uses this word or forms of it about 120-130 times only, yet it is a very important word. It is the foundation of salvation from sin. Without grace, no one would or could enter into a personal relationship with God.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God... (Ephesians 2:8)

The biblical definitions of grace come out of the context of how this word is used. The most common are “the free, unmerited favor of God” and “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.” An old commentary also offered, “Grace is God revealing Christ in such a way that He changes your life.”

I like all of them. Behind them is the truth that in salvation God takes the initiative. Those who come to Him come because He draws them. The faith that enables Christians to lay hold of Him is also a gift from God. Each step we take in our spiritual lives is made possible by grace. A life of holiness and becoming more like Jesus Christ is because of grace. Even the fact that I draw another breath is due to the grace of God. In Him I live and move and have my being (Acts 17:28).

Pride rejects free and generous offerings. “I will do it myself” is at the root of sin and this root resists allowing anyone to give us something we have not earned. For some, they will not accept a gift nor even borrow a lawn mower because their pride prevents them from being dependent on anything or anyone else. Pride shoves God away or pride insists that “I am good enough the way I am.”

Pride is also blind to the depths of sin, even to the fact that pride itself is sin. It also is blind to the impossibility of paying our debt to God just as it is impossible to borrow blessings from Him. The only thing I can say to God is that I am hopelessly sightless when it comes to my own need. Anyone who says otherwise actually proves it by making such a declaration.

Grace is God’s free, unmerited favor, undeserved and unearned. God loves me with a love I cannot earn any more than I could earn the love of my mother. He meets me with grace, coming to me and cancelling my debt. He freely imputes the righteousness of Christ to proud sinners such as I am. As I walk with Jesus, He also graciously continues to love and accept me, imparting what I need to obey and giving me the Holy Spirit to sanctify me that I can be holy.

This is the Gospel, the good news that I needed to hear forty years ago to save me, and forty seconds ago to keep my heart focused on the One who gave Himself for me. By grace I have been saved, not by my own doing but because God’s grace amazingly determined to grant me this astonishing gift through Jesus Christ.

God is in the details

Very often I’ve not made the connection between a day of great blessing and having the wheels fall off the next day. If Sunday was awesome and the presence of God very obvious, Monday will bring irritations and a sense that the whole world has stopped praying.

While I’ve experienced this and learned to expect it, I’m now beginning to see why the Lord allows this to happen. Today’s devotional gives more light using a passage from Judges. Sampson had a day of victory where he destroyed one thousand enemy soldiers single-handedly. Right after that, he falls into a funk over a drink of water. 

And he was very thirsty, and he called upon the LORD and said, “You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”

Lord, of course You came to his aid. “And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived.”

After that, Sampson went on to judge Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years. (Judges 15:18–20)

Spurgeon explains that this is God’s way of teaching us that none of our strength is ours. We tend to puff up after we “hit the ball” or “sing the song” but need to understand that we need You all the time, for the small things of life as well as the gigantic challenges.

A friend claims that he would never pray for petty things like parking places and help with little things. He reasons that You gave us a brain and You expect us to use it.

While You do want me to be strong, wise and sensible, You also want me to realize my source of strength, wisdom and common sense. Without You, I can do nothing (John 15:5). I used to think that this verse meant “nothing of a spiritual nature” but now believe that all of my life is useless without Your input. Unless I am abiding in You, whatever I do can be evaluated as a big zero.

Paul says that it is “in You that we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). By relying on You for everything, a drink of water, help with shopping, grace to teach a class, wisdom to select a gift, all things big or small, I demonstrate my understanding of who You are. I also confess who I am — a needy person without strength or wisdom to do anything.

I suppose I could do many of these ‘small’ things without calling on or acknowledging You. That would mean that after the next big thing, when I cry out and You help me, I can continue to expect to falter with the little things. Mondays will be irritating — until I admit that I need Your grace to clean my house and do the ironing just as much as I need Your grace to write a Bible study and teach a class.

Many times You have provide grace in those ‘little’ things just as water was provided for Sampson. In fact, Your provision is often given in some extraordinary way that produces awe in my heart and praise on my lips. I am revived and more convinced than ever that I need You and that You care about every detail of my life.