The Sins of Proud People

 We all need to be on guard against having pride rise up in our hearts and minds. If we allow ourselves to become proud of ourselves or our achievements, it will cause us to think the wrong way and to say the wrong things. All that pride does is lead us to sin. As the Bible says, "Prides goes before a fall." Once pride comes into our life, we are destined to fall into sins and the consequences of our sins.

That is what happened to the people who were left in the land after Gedaliah, the governor appointed by the Babylonians, was killed by Ishmael. They asked Jeremiah to pray to the Lord to show them what to do, but they did not like what the Lord told Jeremiah to tell them. (Jeremiah 43:2) Azariah, Johanan, and all the proud men said that Jeremiah was lying and that God had not forbidden them to go to Egypt. That led them to make the fatal mistake of going to Egypt where they were killed or died from disease. We can learn a great lesson here.

Pride makes us think that we can do whatever we want to do because we know what is best. That is never true, of course. God is the one who knows what is best for us, and we can't know it unless He shows us. However, when we are proud, we don't ask the Lord, we just go ahead and do what we want, which is the wrong thing. Then, we have problems, and we blame those problems on others because we won't admit we made a mistake. That is how pride leads us to sin.

Also, pride gives us an arrogant attitude. It causes us to tell people who know what they are talking about that they are lying, just like these men told Jeremiah. A proud person is so haughty that he or she will accuse a pastor or other leader of lying, when the pastor is speaking right from the Word of God. Pride causes us to think that we can accuse the other person of lying or deception, and that will negate the truth they are speaking. Of course, that is mere talk, and the truth will always be proved to be true, and the one who speaks truth will be vindicated in the end.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Jeremiah 44-46.