six scriptures to tackle your pride

Trying to learn how to tackle your pride? Same here.

Let me preface this post by saying that I am so, so lucky to have people in my life to hold me accountable.

Sure, I can say I’m trying to measure my life by the Bible’s standards, but at the end of the day, if no one’s giving me perspective from the outside, I’m going to fail. 

That having been said, does anyone actually like having one of those “we need to talk” conversations?

Nope. Not fun.

Very helpful, but not fun.

I’ve had quite a few of those in my lifetime, and it usually really reveals a lot of my pride. 

So I then focus on studying out pride more in my times with God and the Bible. And while it’s all scriptures I’ve read before, they definitely cut deeper when you realize how much they reflect yourself.

If you happen to be dealing with your pride, here are some scriptures that are helping me right now:

1 Samuel 15:7-23

Do you ever have those”But I did obey the Lord!” moments? I can obey with the things that are easy for me. But sometimes I second guess and question and procrastinate with the things that feel hard.

Sometimes it only becomes clear when someone else shares their outside perspective. We all need some Samuel in our lives.

2 Kings 20 

Hezekiah was a king known for his confidence in God in the face of danger (see chapters 18-19). But when it came to his own end, he panicked. God was happy to grant him his request, but Hezekiah, for all his confidence in God, had to have some sort of sign to prove that God would really do it. Then, afterwards, he took enormous pride in his possessions, and ended up pretty much selling out his descendants. (Not that he cared.)

2 Kings 5:1-14 – Naaman was “highly regarded” by his country, and even his king, as a valiant soldier, even though unfortunately he was very sick – so he took serious offense when the prophet Elisha didn’t come out to see him, but instead sent some odd directions. It took his servants to give him some sense.

Daniel 4:28-37 – Another king with a pride problem. God does not take kindly to us setting ourselves up as being equal to or better than him. 

Psalm 73:6 – Pride is like a necklace – everyone else can see it but you. (Don’t get all technical with me about pendants and all that, just go with the analogy.) Sometimes you just have to listen when someone sees something you don’t. Sometimes you even have to ask – and that’s even more humbling.

Proverbs 16:18 – “Pride goes before the fall” is an expression that came from the Bible first, and how true it is!

I’m still only just beginning to work on this problem in my life (again), so this isn’t the definitive list by any means.

And pride comes in so many forms (you could say it’s the root of all sin), so I’m sure it will rear it’s ugly head in a lot of different ways, and I’ll need to study scriptures on all of them.

But hopefully this will be helpful to those who want to tackle it in their lives, as it was helpful for me!

Photo Credit:

1 – Jonathan Borba on Unsplash