Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD. Proverbs 16:5
The way we use the word pride today can refer just to a sense of satisfaction or pleasure in our work or ourselves. But pride as it’s used Biblically is an inward feeling of accomplishment that points to self and away from God. It is an arrogance regarding our situation with a job, relationship, success or fame, to name a few.
Some rabbis have pointed to the shared root of gabahh, meaning to be lifted up or soar, and locust. They note that pride can literally eat away at you, devouring any satisfaction or ego. It leaves you bare and ugly as when a swarm has overtaken a field.
The antidote to pride is humility, recognizing our true value as a creation of God and not a rival to Him. Humility puts our trust in God, not ourselves, even as He uses us for His purposes. Humility leads to holiness, and wholeness.
Pride is deceptive and can sneak in without knowing. I pray that my heart will be humble before Him and spare me from the destruction that pride brings. May I boast in Him alone.
But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord. Jeremiah 9:24
