Saturday, April 14, 2018

Day 291 - Arrogance & Pride

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.

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"People who choose to live lives rooted in the fact that they are everything to God are dangerous to be around. These are the people who allow arrogance to come into their lives and control how they relate to others around them."

As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 168.

It can be so easy to take on an attitude that we mean everything to this God that loves us. The mere fact that He would go to such great lengths to make a way for us to commune with Him is a convincing proof of this fact. Problem is that it can be so easy to let pride take over in victimizing ways when we allow the belief that we mean everything to God control our lives.

Take a look at our reading from the Book of Proverbs. It says…

A proud and haughty man - 'Scoffer' is his name; He acts with arrogant pride. Proverbs 21:24 (NKJV)

Acting with arrogant pride is such a self-destructive way to live. Worse than that, arrogant pride has driven people to do things in the name of God that has created victims throughout the centuries. You don’t have to go any further back than the Crusades as an example of the evil done in the name of God due to a belief that one group was better positioned to receive God’s love than was another.

It isn’t that God wants us to go through life thinking that we must earn His love. That’s the epitome of victim thinking. It isn’t that we mean something to this God that causes us problems. It is what we do to others as a result of how we view our position before our God that can be the issue.

When we see our standing before God as something more than someone else’s, troubles are about to happen. This happens as we rely on our actions to prove what a good choice God made in selecting us to be the focus of His love. Allowing the thought that we are who we are in God’s eyes because of how well we obey Him is such a victim making proposition.

Our reading today says that people who apply arrogant thinking in their lives are named “Scoffers.” At first, I wasn’t sure what God was trying to get across with this identity for the arrogant. Then it hit me, if my identity is that of a scoffer, then God must scoff at me and my actions. When one scoffs at another, the scoffer doesn’t take the scofee seriously. I have to tell you, I don’t want God scoffing at me! Arrogant actions based on my thinking too much of my position before this God opens the door the possibility of my life not being taken all that seriously by this God that made me.

When we act with arrogant pride we are acting exactly the opposite of how God acts. God acts out of love and justice. Arrogant pride so easily negates God’s love in ways that make justice almost impossible in our lives.

I have found that arrogant pride comes from a very familiar place – identity. It is when we have our identity tied to things that just don’t rise to the level of importance to our God that arrogance can sneak into our lives. The victim thinker who applies arrogant based strategies is doomed to live in a place where scoffing is a real possibility.

I want something different for my life. I want to know that all I’m tasked to do in my life has meaning and power. I want to know that my God is viewing my life in a way where love and justice will be maximized in all I do. I want to have a perspective of live that creates victors and consoles victims. I want to be like my Father in Heaven and let love be the power behind all I do. I can only do this with the proper view of my standing before this God that made me.

The fact that you are God’s Child affords you a lot of privileges this world just doesn’t understand. Don’t misapply those privileges in victimizing ways. Know you are loved beyond all you can imagine. Don’t let that fact take you to places where you are tempted to look down on others. Let God’s love be what empowers your victor status in victor making ways today.

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