The Problem of Pride - Obadiah 1:4

“Though you ascend as high as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,” says the Lord. - Obadiah 1:4

    Pride is a monster. It is the most vicious of temperaments and it breaks and bruises everything it touches. Naturally, I am not referring to the harmless pride that comes from watching one’s child do well in an endeavor. I am referring to that coarse and obsessive pride that reeks of self-aggrandizement and self-glory. “The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts.” - Psalm 10:4.
    Pride is not merely a sin, but the precursor to sin in all its forms. Pride is presumptuous, arrogant, selfish, belligerent, confrontational, antagonistic, divisive, intolerant, unforgiving, and more. It is the epitome of self-assurance. “The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; you who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’” - Obadiah 1:3.
    Pride is the problem. Within each of us lives a pulsing worm which gnaws away at our hearts and minds. There is no innate goodness in us that escapes the bite and the claw of pride. This is what is meant by total depravity. And every one of us is guilty of it! “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.” - 1 John 2:6.
    Every sin. Every transgression against God. Every wrong-doing is the result of human pride, for without pride man would not seek the world. And the world is the enemy of God - “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”  - James 4:4.
    God hates pride - “The Lord God has sworn by Himself, the Lord God of hosts says: ‘I abhor the pride of Jacob, and hate his palaces; therefore I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.’” - Amos 6:8. But He loves the humble heart. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart— these, O God, You will not despise.” - Psalm 51:17.
    We must all do a better job seeking less those things which are self-aggrandizing and more of those things which God finds noble and virtuous. “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” - Philppians 4:8.
    Let us all put away our pride and take hold of humility for God’s sake . . . and our own.