Pride is an ugly, ugly thing.  It destroys…it festers…it ravages.  It can so easily get a corner of your heart and becomes the gateway for a whole host of other sins.  We tend to see pride as a “lesser” sin.  As Larry Osborne worded it in his book Accidental Pharisees….”it falls somewhere between failing to floss and driving too fast.”  But in all actuality, pride is at the top of the list of things God hates (Proverbs 16:16-19).  It functions like a cancer, spreading from one part of your life to another.  And part of what makes pride so dangerous is that it is so hard to guard against.

It’s amazing how even something that starts good…pride in your hard work or pride in your family can become something that your heart twists into a tool to look down on somebody else.  That’s just a subtle change…and a dangerous temptation we have to take an aggressive posture in protecting ourselves from.

It’s not enough to just recognize that pride is destructive. It’s not enough to call it what it is and try to stay away from it.  It will find a foothold somewhere, somehow, because our sinful nature is always pulling us back to elevation of self…what’s best for me…how I can come out on top?  No one is immune to it.  And even though followers of Christ desire humility, our very nature is contrary to it.

Philippians 2 tells us how our perfect example, Jesus, “who being in very nature, God,” maintained a posture of humility and remained pure from the subtle sin of pride.  If anyone ever had a reason to be proud, it would be God in Flesh…whose very nature is superior to ours.  All holiness, righteousness, power and glory, bundled into one dude.  But Scripture tells us his secret to an effective defense against pride.

“Your attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.”  Philippians 2:5-7

We are reminded again in Matthew 20:28, “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The bottom line is that we are called to be people who serve one another, who overcome our natural infatuation with ourselves by choosing to put someone else first.  Choosing to serve is an action step…it’s not just going on defense, it’s going on offense, and the best way to fight off a prideful attitude.

• Take some time to think on that…read over those verses and wrestle with them.  Ask yourself where you are most likely to let pride get a foothold.  Is it pride in your family?  Your job performance?  Your moral standards, your academic achievements, your financial portfolio, even your knowledge of Scripture?

• Serving will lead you out of seasons of both hurt and frustration, but also out of seasons of pride because it helps you see beyond yourself. Who are you choosing to serve?  Who is getting your best?  Resolve to give yourself in service to others…to your spouse, your kids, your parents, your neighbors, your co-workers, even strangers you’ve never met before and see what God does with it.

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself…it’s thinking of yourself less.” – C.S. Lewis