Episode 2730 - Lesson 3 - Sunday April 12 - The tight fingers of Pride 🦚

The Tight Fingers of PridePride. When you think of this word, you might picture a proud politician, a rich or famous person, or a peacock. Pride is a feeling that you are more important or better than other people. Indeed, pride is a feeling--one that cannot, and should not, be relied upon.Pride first began with Lucifer, the covering cherub, who was in close service to God. We don’t know when or how those thoughts of selfishness crept into his heart, but we do know that these thoughts propelled the universe into what we know as the great controversy. We see that Satan is the opposite of God. (Compare Isaiah 14:12-14 and Philippians 2:5-11.) As a result, our world has battled the consequences of sin ever since Satan planted doubt in Adam and Eve’s minds and then tempted them to love and trust self above God.Read 1 John 2:15-17. What three main points does this passage teach you about pride and loving the world?Can pride ever be positive? Perhaps not in the context that we know it, although we might use the word positively, when speaking about a person’s achievements or in the context of a deep appreciation for something someone has done (“I’m so proud of you!”). It’s important to understand that pursuing excellence and acknowledging and appreciating the gifts and abilities that God has given you is not necessarily being proud. According to Scripture, there is a proper kind of self-love according to Scripture (think about Jesus’ command in Mark 12:31, where He says to love others as we love ourselves), but this is always unselfish love. People are also not proud when they have God’s presence in their lives and have a purposeful direction (see 1 Tim. 3:1). People are proud when they don’t give God the glory for what He is doing in their lives.We should be careful to remember that our possessions, abilities, and accomplishments don’t determine our value. Instead, our value should always come from God, because everything that we have, even that which tempts us to pride, comes only from Him anyway. This is a point we must never forget.Ask yourself: How prideful am I, really? How might personal pride be impacting my relationship with God and others?