1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian 2 - Blessed are the poor in spirit | Page 4
fact that it was as difficult for proud and self-righteous people to get into heaven
as it was for a camel to get through the eye of a needle. His point here is that
nobody walks into the kingdom of heaven with pride and arrogance. In Luke 18,
Jesus illustrates this truth with the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.
The Pharisee stood before the congregation declaring all of his merits, the
people were impressed, but God was not. The other man in this story was a tax
collector, who, we read, could not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat upon his
chest and declared himself to be a sinner. Jesus makes very clearly the point that
the tax collector’s prayer, as simple as it was, was the prayer that God honoured
the most.
GOD HATES PRIDE! It was pride that got Satan kicked out of heaven. In 1 Peter
5 v 5 it says of God that He “resists the proud”. There are an abundance of
Biblical precedents that illustrate this truth and it is this truth that is
foundational in our own Christian walk and relationship with God.
Prayer Thought: Humility is the thing you lose the moment you think you have it.
Self-righteousness has always been the greatest enemy to people coming
legitimately to Christ. The story in Matthew 19 of the rich young ruler is one story
that illustrates so well this truth. Won’t you go and read it and then honestly
evaluate yourself.
Tuesday
Reading: Luke 14 v 7 – 11
Today I would like to focus on one of God’s remedies for pride: HUMBLE-PIE.
So often in Scripture, we see God giving out healthy doses of humble-pie in order
to keep people from losing themselves in themselves. Moses, at the age of 40, ate
some humble-pie. After he had come out of being the favoured son in Egypt he
had to eat 40 years of humble pie in the back end of the wilderness in Midian. At
the end of that time Moses was incredibly humble and ready to be used by God.
Another example would be seen in the apostle Paul who had experienced so
many glorious things at the hand of God that God gave to him a “thorn in the