The Secret Life of Idols: Pride Part 1

In my last devotional, we looked at how an idol is anything that we fear more than God. God should be our motivation for the reason we live and what we do throughout our day. Sometimes this idol hides in the form of pride. When I talk about pride today, I’m meaning anything that we put on to be our identity, apart from who Jesus calls us to be and to not be. Anytime we tag a part of our identity as our motivation for or against action, it’s an idol.

I’m going to call some people out right now, starting with myself. God created me as an introvert. When I’m interacting with people, it drains me. I know lots of people who are the same way, and it’s good to know how God made me so that I can aptly plan how best to use my skills to serve Him. I can also plan times to rest then when needed. But at one point in my life, that quirk of introversion became an idol in my life to exclude myself from social gatherings. But let’s be real. It’s hard to reach people with the gospel when you’re not with them. 

I worked on overcoming this. I would push myself to the brink of social exhaustion. Then I would need a day to rest. I wouldn’t pick up the phone. I would cry for no reason and only answered my children’s questions with grunts of uh-huh and nuh-uh. The more I did that, the more socializing I could handle. Even so, there are still days when my social energy tank is empty. Sometimes I just gotta push through anyway, but I’m grateful for those days because they make me pray a lot. Jesus carries me through. 

But there’s more to pride than making part of your personality greater than God. The opposite of pride, as we know, is humility. And humility is not thinking of yourself lowly, but it’s seeing yourself the way Jesus sees you. Lord, help us all to see ourselves how You see us. Romans 12:3 says, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” We have to accept the responsibility given to us and submit ourselves to those whom God has placed over us.

In 1 Samuel, King Saul and King David are foils of one another in this matter. King Saul was filled with proud insecurity and King David with humble honor. The prophet Samuel anointed Saul to be king in private, and a few days later when he’s about to proclaim him so publicly, Saul hid. He didn’t feel worthy enough to be King. Later on, in his fear, he loses the opportunity to have his descendants on the throne because he tried to step into the position of a priest and offer sacrifices. Because Saul was insecure of his position, he stepped outside his role to attempt to secure it more. 

 David on the other hand, took his kingship one step at a time. He never laid a hand on Saul, even when he could have. He patiently trusted God to deal with Saul as he ran for his life until God placed him on the throne.

Saul continually was trying to prove that he was worthy enough for the throne, but David trusted God when God told him he was worthy. You also are worthy for the positions and places God appoints to you. You are precious in His sight.

 Listen to what Scripture says about you in Ephesians 1:3-6 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Chirst, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love he predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”

From there we learn that we are vassals of Jesus. We are given spiritual blessings. He chose us. He thought about us before the creation of the world. There is a standard to be holy and blameless. God loves us. God adopted us. He has a purpose for us. Our living in Christ brings God praise and glory. We are given grace through Jesus Christ.

You are who God says you are, not what you desire to think about yourself. We empty ourselves to let Christ shine through.

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“Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

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This will be the start of a series of devotionals on finding the idols in our lives. If you don’t want to miss out on the next ones, type your email below to be notified when they’re posted!