This morning I continue in James.

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”

James 4:1-6

Pride is a real bugger, isn’t it?

Most associate pride with having more than another person or being better at something than them and gloating about it.

But our pride usually gets exposed more when we refuse to be wrong about something. We’re often attached to our identity of being right about specific things. Especially if we’ve spent hours, days, or years learning something of this world.

Even when we’re shown evidence, facts, and compelling reasoning that goes against what we know, we dig our feet in and hold our ground because we’re too proud to admit defeat. It’s this pride that leads to great conflict and wars.

But what are we actually defeated by besides our pride?

What on earth is so worth being right about that it puts you in enmity with God?

Once again, I claim no innocence in this.

I am a deep thinker, an avid researcher, and love to analyze multiple perspectives. I take pride in being thorough in this area. But I must not be so proud to believe that someone else doesn’t have information or a perspective I have not considered.

We can be firm in the foundation of our understanding while being humble enough to listen to others without the need to be right. It’s when we truly listen to others that we connect on deeper levels and are able to have an impact on their and our lives through our fellowship with them. That’s not something you want your pride to get in the way of.

As I write this out, I know of specific situations in life where I need to drop my pride as it is creating or adding to the conflict. It is perfectly fine to be correct and in the right about something while being humble enough to let it go or being open to learning something new.

Some mornings it’s hard to read the bible when it slaps you in the face, but that’s exactly what is needed. The very pride we see out of control in the world causing the conflict from group ideologies that fail to see they’re wrong is the same pride we struggle with in small areas of our lives. We just have to remain humble enough to know it and admit it, then repent before they get out of control.