Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken
from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society"
by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to
the audio file.**********
"Provision can lead to satisfaction. Satisfaction can lead to pride. Pride leads to forgetting God altogether."
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 95.
I have heard athletes who have said that they had rather position themselves behind the leader in a race instead of leading the race all the way to the finish. It is when they are in that place of adversity, being behind, that they seem to be able to dig down deep and pull out that extra level of performance necessary to take the lead and win at the last second.
I have also seen race after race lost when the person in the lead takes their easy finish for granted only to be beat out by that competitor who pushed all the way to the finish line. It is so easy to take things for granted when we are content with where we are even when we are content with the kind of performance that has placed is in front of everyone else. There is nothing like the fire that can burn in a competitor’s belly when that competitor has to work a little harder to compete at the top level.
Today’s Bible reading shows what happens when we take ourselves and our performance too seriously.
I’m the only real God you’ve ever known.
I’m the one and only God who delivers.
I took care of you during the wilderness hard times,
those years when you had nothing.
I took care of you, took care of all your needs,
gave you everything you needed.
You were spoiled. You thought you didn’t need me.
You forgot me. Hosea 13:4-6 (MSG)
This scripture comes as God is explaining himself to a people who had called out to him, been rescued by him and when things were going well for that people group, they forgot about him altogether. God gave them everything they needed only to become complacent. It is when complacency is a part of who we are that trouble can really take hold. It’s like that runner who thinks he has the win all wrapped up only to see a much more driven competitor push past him for the victory. Complacency makes it Oh so easy for pride to do things in our lives that make victory so hard to obtain.
Pride can be defined as having inordinate self-esteem. When we start to believe all the good things others say about us or when we begin to rest too heavily on our past accomplishments it is so easy to become complacent. It’s when we are caught in the sticky web of pride brought on by complacency that we can easily forget the God who gave us all we needed to be able to have that, sweet feeling that comes with success and recognition. Pride goes before the fall is an appropriate saying when pride enables us to think we somehow don’t need this God that made us be all we can be in this world.
It’s not that God doesn’t want us to feel proud of the amazing things He enables us to do. Quite the opposite is true. He wants us to be in total amazement at the accomplishments that he has called for us to be a part of. It is when we begin to think that we are capable of anything based on our abilities and accomplishments that gets us into trouble.
I don’t for a second think that God orchestrates disaster after disaster when we become too prideful in an effort to teach us some humility. No, I think God loves us so much that when our pride tells Him that we don’t need His assistance, He withdraws rather than forces Himself on us. It is when He withdraws that all hell can break loose in the life of His children.
Let me be perfectly clear about what I mean by God withdrawing. It isn’t that He abandons us when pride tells Him He isn’t needed. No, God never leaves us. Rather than abandoning us, He walks alongside us but withdraws His provision, protection and power in ways that can make us feel so alone when our pride isn’t enough to make us feel like the people He made us to be. Again, He does this out of love because our pride was telling Him He is no longer needed. Good news is that because of His great love for us He is so ready to rush back into our lives when we wake up to the realization of our need for His presence.
It is when we choose to trust our accomplishments to secure an identity for ourselves that God hears us telling Him He is no longer needed in our lives. Though the strategy of going it alone without God may work for a while, I have seen it time and time again where the foundation for one’s identity crumbles after their best efforts fail to produce what is needed to prove who they think we really are. It is in that time of despair that the, once pride filled success, finds that nothing can replace the truth of who they are when that truth comes from God Himself.
If my identity is based on anything I do well or on the admiring words of those who think highly of me due to my abilities and accomplishments, that identity is going to fail me at some time in the future. When that happens, victim thinking is waiting to come rushing in to rob me of that victory that was so close to being mine.
How much is pride going to influence the race you will run in your life today? Anything that makes you take your eyes off the Lord is a doomed strategy for the Child of God. Don’t let your identity be shaped by anything other than God’s own words. He is the only real God you have ever known. He is the one who has delivered you time and time again. He is the one who loves you and cares for you. Nothing, not your greatest success or your most dismal failure will change the fact that He has your best interest in mind.
Lean into the fact that He has made you exactly who you are today. That identity as the victor you are can’t be challenged by this world unless pride lets complacency creep in. When that happens, you better be looking over your shoulder because your competitors are not that far behind working hard to snatch that victory you worked so hard to have right out from under your nose.
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