Proverbs 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
Anyone who has traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland has probably seen the Edinburgh castle. It is a tower of seemingly insurmountable strength. However, long ago that castle was attacked and seized.
One place in the fortress was protected by its steepness and impregnability, they thought, so no guards were posted there. But at an obvious weak spot was where the most guards were stationed. Wouldn't you know that at an opportune time, the attacking army sent a small band up that unguarded slope and surprised the garrison into surrender. Where the castle was strong, there it was weak.
In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin wrote: "There is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility".
I guess the even best of us struggle with pride in our lives -- wait, come to think of it -- it's most likely the best of us that struggle with pride the most!
The enemy of our souls would like nothing more than to cause us to stumble -- especially in the areas we feel most secure!! We need to be on guard. Let's never put our hope in our own strengths, or anyone else's for that matter. We must remind ourselves continuously that it is the Lord who is our strength, and He alone.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]As we approach the New Year, we’re back to making New Year’s resolutions … but this year is a bit different, since it’s not only a New Year but a New Decade! During the past ten years we’ve seen such radical changes in our society; the definition of marriage, millennia-old norms of gender identity, bath and locker-room privacy, have all been affected by court decisions as a sea change in social mores has swept through the western world. People of Biblical faith are witnessing the fulfillment of Isaiah’s warning, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” [Isaiah 5:20]
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