Reverse Pride

There are countless verses in the Bible about pride; about the dangers of it and how God hates it (Prov. 6:16-17). Now, we are always so quick to recognize pride and point it out in others and occasionally ourselves, but I think we often forget that the essence of pride is simple self-centeredness.

Pride is generally assumed to be thinking too highly of one's self, and there is a fine line that we have to walk between thinking too much of ourselves and thinking too little.

We have to find our identity in Christ and realize that we really aren't worth anything, but at the same time He sees us as invaluable.

But when we focus too much on how we aren't really worth anything, and we believe the lies of the enemy trying to tell us that we will never accomplish anything and God can't use us, we lose any confidence and self-esteem we may have had.

That seems a bit obvious, but what we don't always see is that low self-esteem and insecurity is the same thing as pride. It's still a form of self-centeredness. You still are thinking only about yourself, even if it is in thinking that you are worthless and God will never be able to use you, or the things you have done are to terrible for Him to save you.

Honestly, the only reason I even mention this is it's been a lesson that God has been teaching me. I am usually one that suffers from pride but God opened my eyes to it years ago while I was performing one Sunday morning. After that, I quit singing and tried to focus solely on God. Since then, I have not performed on a stage. That was over three years ago.

The whole situation caused me to be very cautious when it comes to pride, but I never realized that it opened me up to 'reverse pride'. In trying so hard to stay humble and awed at the thought and presence of the Lord, I lost my sense of worth in Him and started to believe the lies of the enemy, who pointed out my flaws and mistakes I made, telling me God could never forgive me.

But that is a lie. Pure and simple.

The Bible tells us that He sees us as priceless treasures. At the same time, it also says that there is none righteous, no not one.

If we look entirely to Him, keep our focus on Him alone and realize that there is nothing else in this world or beyond it that matters at all, then we won't have to worry about walking the fine line between thinking too much of ourselves or too little. It will all just fall in line.

-Brittinni