“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” - Prov 16:18 (NIV)

Pride is an old enemy of mankind that we should all guard from. The story of the fall of Lucifer starts with his being so impressed with his beauty and apparent power that he found God of no much use. “Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the Earth. I made a spectacle of you before kings (Ezekiel 28: 17).

Just as back then the genesis of pride starts when one gets puffed up with himself usually based on some achievements or new status. “By your wisdom and understanding you have gained wealth for yourself and amassed gold and silver in your treasures. By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth and because of your wealth your heart has grown proud” (Ezekiel 28: 4-5).

With pride often comes consequences. Lucifer was thrown out of the kingdom of God and lonely has been beating about since looking for captives.

The thing with pride is the deception that you are in charge and no longer in need of God. This is what we see in many prosperous nations of the West that have literally thrown God out of their lives. And at an individual level of course it always happens once one of us believes he has arrived. Then why need God!

But let us be humble: for He is the source of life and anything worth counting is because of His grace. For as it was written, “He must increase; but I must decrease,” (John 3:39, ESV). Then humble God shall bless us even more.

Prayer for today: Lord Father in heaven, today I pray in the mighty name of Jesus of Nazareth, that I never let pride take captive of my life!