This is the final post regarding killing pride and cultivating humility.
8. Laugh at yourself with others. When you are the object of humor if you cannot laugh at yourself with others pride is normally the root issue. Terry Lindvall writes, "Laughter is a divine gift to the human who is humble. A proud man cannot laugh because he must watch his dignity; he cannot give himself over to the rocking and rolling of his belly. But a poor and happy man laughs heartily because he give no serious attention to his ego" (Surprised by Laughter, pg. 130-131).
9. Cultivate the habit of gratitude. Michael Ramsey writes, "Thankfulness is a soil in which pride does not easily grow." We must discipline ourselves to show gratitude to God and to others. Mahaney writes, "We also want to continue throughout the day expressing gratefulness for the innumerable manifestations of God's grace. It's as if God is placing sticky-notes in our lives as daily reminders of His presence and provision...how perceptive of them are you? An ungrateful person is a proud person" (Humility, pg. 71).
In closing remember the glorious promise of Scripture, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6).
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Killing Pride & Cultivating Humilty (part 3)
Today we are going to look at 3 more ways to kill pride and cultivate humility. But before we do I wanted to share this quote from Richard Baxter:
6. Use unflattering illustrations of yourself in the home and at work.
7. Recognize your relative unimportance and prepare to be replaced. The truth we often fail to realize is that we are dispensable. Charles DeGaul once wrote, "Graveyards are filled with indispensable men." Psalm 103 reminds us of this truth: "For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more" (14-16).
In the next post we should finish up the suggestions...like I wrote yesterday feel free to leave your comments and/or questions.
"Pride is a deep-rooted and a self-preserving sin; and therefore is harder to be killed and rooted up than other sins. It hinders the discovery of itself...It will not allow the sinner to see his pride when he is reproved; neither will it allow him to confess it if he sees it; nor...to loathe himself and forsake it....even when he recognizes all of the evidences of pride in others, he will not see it in himself...If you would go about to cure him of this or any other fault, you shall feel that you are handling a wasp or an adder; yet when he is spitting the venom of pride against the reprover, he does not perceive that he is proud; this venom is a part of his nature and therefore is not felt as harmful or poisonous..."5. Invite and pursue correction. How consistently and aggressively do you PURSUE and INVITE correction in your life? Would your spouse and others who are close to you say you are easy to entreat and that you are approachable? If there was something God wanted to tell you through another, could He do it? Proverbs 10:17 says, "He is in the way of life that keeps instruction: but he that refuses reproof errs (also see Proverbs 15:31-32; 29:1)
6. Use unflattering illustrations of yourself in the home and at work.
7. Recognize your relative unimportance and prepare to be replaced. The truth we often fail to realize is that we are dispensable. Charles DeGaul once wrote, "Graveyards are filled with indispensable men." Psalm 103 reminds us of this truth: "For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more" (14-16).
In the next post we should finish up the suggestions...like I wrote yesterday feel free to leave your comments and/or questions.
Killing Pride & Cultivating Humilty (part 2)
Picking up where we left off yesterday here are suggestion 3 & 4 for killing pride and cultivating humility.
3. Study and apply the doctrine of sin to your own life. Romans 1-3 is a revealing set of chapters on the subject of our sinfulness. The Enemy Within is a great book written by Kris Lungaard (it is actually a modern synopsis of John Owens classic work The Temptation and Mortification of Sin). But more important than learning about your sinfulness is doing something about it. Here are some questions you should be asking yourself as you apply the doctrine of sin to your own life: Are you specifically confessing sins to the appropriate individuals, as well as your present temptations? Are you confessing sin specifically? Are you confessing your sin fully? Or is your confession selective and partial (which means that ultimately it is misleading)? Remember that pride works to blind us from our sin (1 Corinthians 10:12) and it's consequences (Numbers 32:23). Start fully confessing your sin because God resists the proud (the non-confessors) and gives grace to the humble (the confessors).
4. Consistently practice the spiritual disciplines. Practicing the spiritual disciplines of Scripture meditation, prayer, and Bible memorization makes a huge statement: "GOD I NEED YOU!" It is a statement of my need for Him and my dependence upon Him, which kills pride and cultivates humility. But if you turn the tables and avoid the spiritual disciplines you are saying by your actions: "GOD I DO NOT NEED YOU!" And that is the essence of pride.
Tomorrow we will introduce 3 more suggestions...feel free to post comments and/or questions.
3. Study and apply the doctrine of sin to your own life. Romans 1-3 is a revealing set of chapters on the subject of our sinfulness. The Enemy Within is a great book written by Kris Lungaard (it is actually a modern synopsis of John Owens classic work The Temptation and Mortification of Sin). But more important than learning about your sinfulness is doing something about it. Here are some questions you should be asking yourself as you apply the doctrine of sin to your own life: Are you specifically confessing sins to the appropriate individuals, as well as your present temptations? Are you confessing sin specifically? Are you confessing your sin fully? Or is your confession selective and partial (which means that ultimately it is misleading)? Remember that pride works to blind us from our sin (1 Corinthians 10:12) and it's consequences (Numbers 32:23). Start fully confessing your sin because God resists the proud (the non-confessors) and gives grace to the humble (the confessors).
4. Consistently practice the spiritual disciplines. Practicing the spiritual disciplines of Scripture meditation, prayer, and Bible memorization makes a huge statement: "GOD I NEED YOU!" It is a statement of my need for Him and my dependence upon Him, which kills pride and cultivates humility. But if you turn the tables and avoid the spiritual disciplines you are saying by your actions: "GOD I DO NOT NEED YOU!" And that is the essence of pride.
Tomorrow we will introduce 3 more suggestions...feel free to post comments and/or questions.
Killing Pride & Cultivating Humilty
On Sunday morning at Meadowview we talked about the danger of harboring pride in our lives. I believe it was John Stott who said that pride is our greatest enemy and humility is our greatest friend.
Several years ago I attended a conference where one of the breakout sessions was on the subject of Killing Pride & Cultivating Humility. That session was worth the entire conference, and over the next few days I want to share with you some practical suggestions for killing pride and cultivating humility. I must give credit where credit is due so I'll mention that this information was taken from C. J. Mahaney's tremendous book titled Humility: True Greatness. So without further ado, here is suggestion one:
1. Study the attributes of God. You see the more aware we become of the infinite distance that exists between us and God, the more humility we will experience and express. This distance is created by God's Holiness (purity, and also what I sometimes define as His 'differentness' - see Psalm 50:21) and our lack thereof. So the suggestion is to study the Scriptures and be humbled by the greatness of God. One of my favorite texts that I would encourage you to consider reading is Isaiah 40:9-31. Beyond scripture there are some great books: The Knowledge of the Holy (Tozer); Knowing God (Packer); The Pleasures of God (Piper); Gripped By the Greatness of God (MacDonald) also most Systematic Theology books have a section on the attributes of God (I recommend Wayne Grudem for this particular subject).
2. Every day survey the cross on which the Prince of Glory died. As was stated on Sunday, it is hard to be arrogant standing close to the cross. When we are close to the cross our own sin and need for forgivness is evident, therefore we are more apt to extend forgivness and grace to others. Apart from the gospel accounts of Jesus death here are some great passages to read: 1 Corinthians 1:8; Galatians 6:14; Philippians 2:8; Hebrews 12:2-3; Isaiah 53:4-5, 10-11. Beyond scripture there are some fantastic books: The Cross of Christ (Stott); Living the Cross Centered Life (Mahaney); The Cross He Bore (Leahy); The Murder of Jesus (MacArthur).
Let's chew on these suggestions for today and I will provide 2 more tomorrow.
Several years ago I attended a conference where one of the breakout sessions was on the subject of Killing Pride & Cultivating Humility. That session was worth the entire conference, and over the next few days I want to share with you some practical suggestions for killing pride and cultivating humility. I must give credit where credit is due so I'll mention that this information was taken from C. J. Mahaney's tremendous book titled Humility: True Greatness. So without further ado, here is suggestion one:
1. Study the attributes of God. You see the more aware we become of the infinite distance that exists between us and God, the more humility we will experience and express. This distance is created by God's Holiness (purity, and also what I sometimes define as His 'differentness' - see Psalm 50:21) and our lack thereof. So the suggestion is to study the Scriptures and be humbled by the greatness of God. One of my favorite texts that I would encourage you to consider reading is Isaiah 40:9-31. Beyond scripture there are some great books: The Knowledge of the Holy (Tozer); Knowing God (Packer); The Pleasures of God (Piper); Gripped By the Greatness of God (MacDonald) also most Systematic Theology books have a section on the attributes of God (I recommend Wayne Grudem for this particular subject).
2. Every day survey the cross on which the Prince of Glory died. As was stated on Sunday, it is hard to be arrogant standing close to the cross. When we are close to the cross our own sin and need for forgivness is evident, therefore we are more apt to extend forgivness and grace to others. Apart from the gospel accounts of Jesus death here are some great passages to read: 1 Corinthians 1:8; Galatians 6:14; Philippians 2:8; Hebrews 12:2-3; Isaiah 53:4-5, 10-11. Beyond scripture there are some fantastic books: The Cross of Christ (Stott); Living the Cross Centered Life (Mahaney); The Cross He Bore (Leahy); The Murder of Jesus (MacArthur).
Let's chew on these suggestions for today and I will provide 2 more tomorrow.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Psalm 9:9-10
"The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you."
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Wartime Mindset
Here is a great quote from John Piper's book Don't Waste Your Life that helps us consider the reality of what it means to truly follow Jesus.
"There is a war going on in the world between Christ and Satan, truth and falsehood, belief and unbelief. It tells me that there are weapons to be funded and used, but that these weapons are not swords or guns or bombs but the Gospel and prayer and self-sacrificing love (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). And it tells me that the stakes of this conflict are higher than any other war in history; they are eternal and infinite: heaven or hell, eternal joy or eternal torment (Matthew 25:46). I need to hear this message again and again, because I drift into a peacetime mind-set as certainly as rain falls down and flames go up. I am wired by nature to love the same toys that the world loves. I start to fit in. I start to love what others love. I start to call earth ‘home.’ Before you know it, I am calling luxuries ‘needs’ and using my money just the way unbelievers do. I begin to forget the war. I don’t think much about people perishing. Missions and unreached peoples drop out of my mind. I stop dreaming about the triumphs of grace. I sink into a secular mindset that looks first to what man can do, not what God can do. It is a terrible sickness. And I thank God for those who have forced me again and again toward a wartime mind-set.”
Don’t Waste Your Life, 112
Monday, October 31, 2011
Halloween vs. Reformation Day
Today the world celebrates Halloween. There will be parties, costumes, spooky decoration, and lots of candy. Now, is it just me or does it seem that over the past decade the popularity of Halloween has grown exponentially? In fact I have actually heard people say that out of all the Holiday's we celebrate Halloween is their favorite. I'm sorry but that is a little strange. But my point isn't to write about Halloween but the little known holiday that Halloween overshadows every year - it's called Reformation Day.
It all started on October 31st, 1517 when a brash, but biblical Catholic priest by the name of Martin Luther had had enough of the corrupt ways of certain leaders in the Catholic church and wrote out his concerns in what is now known as Luther's 95 thesis. History tells that Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the door of the church in Wittenberg Germany (the town where he lived and served) also sending a copy to Albert the Archbishop of Mainz and Madgeburg. This move is what most historians believe to be the spark that started the reformation.
The reason I write of this is to express my admiration for Martin Luther. I do not claim to agree with everything that Martin Luther wrote or taught, but what i do claim is that Luther was a man committed to Scripture. This commitment is best summarized in his response to his accusers at the Diet of Worms. I encourage you to take a moment and watch his response as portrayed in the 2003 movie Luther.
It all started on October 31st, 1517 when a brash, but biblical Catholic priest by the name of Martin Luther had had enough of the corrupt ways of certain leaders in the Catholic church and wrote out his concerns in what is now known as Luther's 95 thesis. History tells that Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the door of the church in Wittenberg Germany (the town where he lived and served) also sending a copy to Albert the Archbishop of Mainz and Madgeburg. This move is what most historians believe to be the spark that started the reformation.
The reason I write of this is to express my admiration for Martin Luther. I do not claim to agree with everything that Martin Luther wrote or taught, but what i do claim is that Luther was a man committed to Scripture. This commitment is best summarized in his response to his accusers at the Diet of Worms. I encourage you to take a moment and watch his response as portrayed in the 2003 movie Luther.
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