PRIDE

One of the most destructive sins a Christian deals with is pride. If you are a Christian thinking that you don't deal with it.... just no. You do. We all do. 
Pride looks comes in all different forms. It isn't something with a single definition. It's something that sneaks up on us in many different ways where we least expect it.

Some great verses warning us about pride are:
"Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling." Prov. 16:18
"Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation." Rom. 12:16
"For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say "You sit here in a good place," and you say to the poor man, "You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool," have you not made a distinction among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?" James 2:2-4
"But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble." James 4:6

What does pride look like? The most basic type of pride that I would dare say every Christian has dealt with, is dealing with, or will deal with is the kind that thinks we have it all together. Just when we think we have the Christian life down and figured out, is when we are about to fall. It is unpredictable, meaning we MUST be depending on the Spirit every day.

The next type of pride is the kind that thinks we are better than others. This may be counting ourselves as more righteous than others or judging others for not being like us. I think the temptation for many people in the United States (especially women) is to judge based on appearances. A) Why does it matter what someone is wearing or how they fix themselves up? and B) Who are we to be the ones to determine what is in or out of style? Appearances aside, this kind of pride makes us think very highly of ourselves in general. The danger here is that when we serve god, we give the glory to ourselves. Here's the thing. God will not use someone to do his work if they are doing it for their own glory. 

The last kind of pride I want to mention is the kind that keeps us from admitting when we are wrong or have messed up. We all know that stubborn person who never admits they are wrong. Don't be that person haha.  On a more serious note, when we act like we have everything together and ignore our mess ups we miss out on God's grace! God gives grace to the humble, and is opposed to the proud. As Christians we are to boast in Christ in ALL things. When God has blessed us with something or given us an opportunity to serve Him, praise Him by thanking Him and by telling what he has done for us. On the other hand, when we mess up God welcomes us back to Himself with open arms! Praise Him by telling others what He has done!

This is where people may disagree with me. I think a majority of the time the church is so concerned with "keeping a good testimony" or a "good witness" that we hide the fact that we all mess up and are human! Now I do NOT want this to sound anti-church, because I want to promote unity in the church, not cause people to leave it. The church will never be perfect because it is made up of a bunch of sinners, however, we do worship a perfect God. Anyways, with that being said, the church is supposed to encourage one another and work together keeping each other accountable. How are we to keep each other accountable if we all act like we have everything together? We keep a good testimony by living by the Spirit and living a life consecrated to Him. Everyone makes mistakes though.We belittle God's grace when we hide what He is doing in our lives because we don't want to admit our struggles. I'm not saying we go around waving every mistake we've ever done like we are proud. We do, however, relate to those dealing with sins we have dealt with in the past, be open about asking for prayer over current struggles, and NEVER lie about things of the past. To act like something that God brought us through never happened is to rob Him of His glory! Praise Him for using sinners like us to display his mercy, love, and grace!