A new look at the spirit of pride and "self"

I received this email today and then I responded in the following manner according to how the Lord impressed me to answer. Funny how my own written words brought conviction to myself.((Chanin,I have a student that has the spirit of self and pride. It is as if she issaturated with it. Please pray that the Lord will bring her to a broken stateso that she will be in the right heart attitude to glean from His Word and findpeace she so desires. I want to pray about her and read the Bible more before Ianswer the questions to her day 1 course.))My Response:(((Yes, pray. The only thing we can do other than pray is just be an example of humility ourselves. It takes time for people to become broken. She must have a hurtful past to be full of herself and pride. this is her defense mechanism.if you look at her in this light it might help. She actually feels very unworthy or she wouldn't feel the need to be full of 'self' or prideful. Have compassion on her while carefully being a good example and bringing the Truth of God to her. It is hard, i know but when we realize that she is needy inside, it helps. :) )))This spirit of self and pride is one that really irritates me personally. My discernment regarding this goes off immediately with others. As I read back over my response, I realized that I needed to respond to others in this same way. I was lacking in mercy to others who fall short in this area. I asked myself, when I am confronted with people who are prideful and self-righteous, do i look at them this way that i just suggested? Most of the time, No. I get angry and call it "righteous anger". I judge and say they should know better.Some of us have spiritual pet peeves and they maybe legitimate sins. The Lord has given us discernment about many "heart sins". But this discernment is not for us to rebuke someone, but to pray earnestly for and seek how we can become a help to someone in this area. As I have grown and matured and had many trials so that less of me is in me, I see how mercy triumphs over judgement. It is not just righteous anger that must consume me when I see sin, for I AM NOT GOD. We have the Holy Spirit living in us to help us treat others as better than ourselves. To help us have compassion on others because we were once and still are sinners. We can ask the Lord how to be a servant to that person. How can we be an example in their sight and in their presence. By our actions and our own "living " words we can rebuke sin many times without saying a word. Light casts out darkness. If we are truly "light", we cannot help but illuminate truth in a place of darkness.It is easy for me to give spiritual advice from the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, but it is another to actually practice it. Every piece of advice I give, I want to be able to say that I practice it.Instead of just speaking truth to people, it is more important to be and live that truth. Anyone can speak the truth but few can live it.Hidden in Him, Chanin

Chanin:I really bear witness with what you are saying.A week or so ago I experienced some feeling of anger and frustration when I heard of other professing Christians watching things like the sitcom Friends. I was angry inside. I had the same feelings I usually get when I hear those type of things. I withdraw into this quiet state. I don't want to talk. This time I felt the same way and began to do the same thing when my wife asked me what was wrong. I told her we need to pray for these people, that God would open their eyes.I get weary with the compromise and mixture. I need to get more weary of my own sin though. I'm reminded right now that I have not been diligent to pray for the ones that I told my wife we needed to pray for.I think the Lord is trying to soften my heart toward others. I need to remember where the Lord has brought me from and how He can do it in others as well. I think sometimes I get concerned that I will get soft on sin or excuse compromise. I really want to be full of the love and longsuffering of Jesus Christ and show it toward others though.Anyway, enough rambling from me. Hopefully this make sense to someone.Mike

Mike,I also know what you mean by fearing that you might get soft on sin. As the Lord has been trying to teach me about His mercy and longsuffering, it was a big fear of mine as well. It actually hindered me from being open to the Lord to learn the other side of God as well. I think that maybe I viewed it as "I" was going to be too soft on sin, when it is not "I" but God who stands in the position to judge. I think that when we see many truths for ourselves and start living a more Christ-like life and after we start giving up on some major outward (and inward) sins, we start to have some self-righteousness and think 'how could they not know this!" When we have really only started to experience part of God's cleansing power and living the Christ-like life. I think many people get stuck at this point. They see the truth and get rid of alot of sin, then expect others to do the same. Yet they haven't come full circle or received the fullness of Christ- that He is not only righteous and judging- but also meek and longsuffering and merciful.I know that I am no softer on sin "in my own life", I am just a bit softer and gentler at seeing the sin in other's lives. I still see it and know that it displeases God, but must not forget how just a few short years ago, I went for years myself running my own life in full view of God. I am sure He was not pleased with me keeping a hold of my rights and choosing to willfully disobey Him. Yet I look now and see that He did not give up on me. He had a plan for me and chose to bring me to repentance- not through any man- but through His loving care for me. I knew He wanted to free me from myself and only He could do it. That is love. He longs for all of his children to be free from bondage and to be surrendered to Him. As the Lord has continued to search my heart and expose sin to me, it is easy to think I have "arrived". Yet, He graciously continues to show me more and more sinful attitudes- and because of this, it humbles me and keeps me from viewing others as less spiritual than myself. We are all responsible for what it revealed to us. Others may not have the revelation we have yet in many areas, and hence, may not be accountable yet for what we are accountable for.We may see someone today with some obvious sin in their lives and judge and have a self-righteous attitude about it today. Yet we don't know that 2 years from now, the Lord already knows that that person will come around to full repentance and be doing a marvelous work for the Lord. We can pray for this to be so sooner than later. We can be the one whom the Lord chooses to use as an example of His righteousness. But none of us is perfect. I believe this is one of the hardest lessons to learn in the Christian life. After learning to overcome in your own walk, how to help others overcome in their walk with out a self-righteous heart attitude. There is a fine line between being grievous over the sins of others and having the right heart attitude toward them asking the Lord for mercy for them and for their hearts to be open to the Lord in full surrender. I should know, I use to have the Jonah syndrome :) I would rather those who sinned, suffer for their sin and learn their lesson. The only way the Lord has changed me in this area is to show me that i am a loooong way from perfection myself and that I too deserve judgement everyday for the dumb things I do and say inside and outside.May we all learn to walk humbly before our God.

My boyfriend and I recently had a discussion on self-righteous behavior. I have recently been delivered from a life of self-will and self-directedness. I became proud and and very unappreciative of the power the Lord had displayed in me. For several years I was addicted to food, so much that it took me up to 296 pounds. By His grace, I am now 170. God has taken me on this adventure for over two years of my life. The Lord brought me down to a pivotal point where I either had to follow Him or fail miserably in my own self-reliant heart consistently the rest of my life. God has stripped away every fiber that I have put up around my heart that wasn't turned over to Him. My boyfriend was one thing I hadn't turned over to the Lord, the moment I did, my boyfriend came out of nowhere and told me that I had to tone down my blessings that God has given me. He told me that it would be easy for me to be self-righteous in my heart if I didn't watch it. At this point, I wasn't questioning the Lord about the situation. Instead of following self, I followed the Lord and didn't break up with him. I feel that there are never any mistakes with the Lord. All things work together for the good of those who love HIm and are called according to His purpose. My taking action against my boyfriend is wrong in God's eyes, if my boyfriend and I are not meant to be it will be so in God's time, not mine. I asked God last night to break my boyfriend and make him more softhearted to my cause, fighting against the gluttonous heart. The Lord has laid it upon me to minister to other women who suffer food addiction. It is a terrible thing to go through, I lived it for over 20 years of my life. I am a miserable wretch that don't even deserve wrags, but in Jesus Christ, He makes my wrags a beautiful white robe and cleansed me of all unrighteousness that was in my heart. I surrendered every inch of my soul, God will continue to show me things I haven't surrendered to Him, when He does I pray that I will experience sheer brokenness, something that brings me closer to Him and brings me down to my knees in humility. I know what it is like to be so proud of yourself and thinking you know it all, to someone who sees herself in the mirror and sees the miserable wretch that the Lord has accepted and loves, one that has been cleansed and redeemed. The old man is always going to be there, but it will never rule me, I am a new creation in the Lord God Jesus Christ and only in Him am I free from it.