Pride

What is your credit score? What position did your high school football team place in your junior year? Do you carry one of those plum, black or platinum cards? On your Tivo which shows do you “thumb up” or “thumb down”? Rating life and the things that go with it are very common. We review movie ratings, restaurant ratings, purchase consumer reports on how well an item performs, let’s face it we rate everything.

Rating sin on a scale is not something God does, when it comes to sin it’s just sin. So if you run a red light; you sinned and that does not constitute any less consequences than if you cheated on your spouse for 30 years. It’s hard to imagine but in God’s eyes sin is sin. It all does the same thing, it kills us.

But if there was a root to all sin you could argue it was the sin of pride.

“For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.” (1 John 2:16 ESV)

See pride is a principle source of division between people and God. Whereas the other deadly sins on our list of seven have a severe impact, pride takes it to the level that says, “I don’t need anything or anyone but myself!” Usually pride is the beginning of sin.

It is pride that refuses to get help, it’s pride that takes more accolades than necessary. It’s pride that thinks too much of itself and over estimates its abilities. For as much as it might help a person it pays back in hurt. Prides formula is always 1 part help, 2 parts hurt. And it’s pride that does not desire a relationship with God and says you can do this on your own. Pride states “to do life your way” and from there a multitude of problems start to take hold.

Billy White shares this story, “I recently took a 45-minute drive in an old, beat-up van with a guy I barely know. Along the way we ended up talking about Jesus and whether this man would give his life to Christ. His response to me laid out humanity's resistance to the gospel with striking clarity. He said, "My biggest problem is pride. I can't humble myself. And you wanna know the reason I can't give up my pride?" He leaned up onto the steering wheel and paused for effect. "Because it's brought me so far."

I couldn't believe my ears. I knew that his pride had brought nothing but great pain. It was all he held onto while growing up in gangs—while his father died of a drug overdose and his mother was in the mafia. I knew that this self-made man beat his wife regularly, that he was unemployed, that he had just gotten out of prison. In fact, I found out a week later that he was on his way back into prison!

In a separate conversation, his wife told me that his young daughters are terrified of him, that he is an alcoholic, and that she is planning to leave him. She even told me that the old van he was driving was going to be repossessed in a week.
Yet despite all our differences, I couldn't help but notice that in some ways, this guy and I are similar. I struggle to lay down my pride, because it's brought me so far—or so I think. What it's really brought both him and me—and you, no doubt—is pain, isolation, and ruined relationships.”

Heavenly Father, help me lay down my pride and to see where you can help me. I don’t want to live like you don’t exist or can’t help me. May I never be foolish as to not extend my hands and my life to you all my days. Instead I choose to humble myself to your ways and ask you would forgive me for all the times I left you in the dust. Jesus take full control of my life. In Jesus Name—Amen!

Gluttony

“He who conceals his transgres¬sions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.” – Proverbs 28:13 (NASB)

The sin of Gluttony could be the sin of America. Not because we have so much, but because often so much of what we have has us! Instead of being free we are often slaves. Slaves to the smell of a fast meal, slaves to the payment on a new car, slaves to the latest tech gadget, in our freedom we are living like slaves.

Sure we are cool enough to handle all these demands, but too often the treadmill of “stuffing” ourselves with American life catches up to us. We can often feel trapped by what we thought we had trapped. When this occurs we tend to act out in our sin. A vicious cycle then ensues:

1. We continue to commit the sin.
2. We desire to stop committing the sin.
3. We feel like what we’ve done is unforgivable by God and/or people.
4. We hide our sin from others, spurning community and its healing accountability.
5. Repeat steps 1-4.

Sound familiar? Gluttony along with the rest of the deadly sins loves this process. Like a weed in the crack of a sidewalk it nestles in and grows out of whatever soil you will give it.
Often, we let our sinful behavior grow because we hope to avoid the consequences that we know we deserve. Or, we might be afraid to disappoint God, our friends, our family, and others. Even worse, sometimes we become content with our sin pat¬terns and reach a point in which we don’t desire change.

Proverbs 28:13 makes it clear—if we continue to hide our sins, we isolate ourselves and create a barrier between us and God. But, if we confess our sins, we receive mercy and healing. Mercy and healing are truly what we least expect when we confess. Yet, 1 John 1:9 promises us that if we confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive us.

We expect to be hated. We expect others to look down at us and be disappointed. We expect that others will never trust us again. And this expectation can keep us covering our sins up until they explode. So, whether people respond with grace or contempt, God’s command is the same: confess. It’s the only way to re¬ceive the mercy and healing that we desperately need.

On the flip side, if someone confesses to us, we should prayerfully consider our response and choose to extend mercy, love, and accountability in a God-honoring way.

Father, help me to break this cycle of sin in my life. Help me be bold in confessing where I’m in need of mercy and healing. May I not hide my sins one more day. Please forgive me for my [gluttony, envy, etc…]. Thank you for your abundant grace in my life. And as I have received mercy help me display your mercy to others in their time of confession. In Jesus Name—Amen!

Envy

“Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness.” (Luke 11:34)

A person’s eye says much about them. We often look for the attractive blue eyes or the illusive green eyes, but I am not talking about color. I am talking about what those eyes take in. When our soul is not submitted to God it then desires to see and interact with sin. Like a volcano that eventually breaks forth, a person that continually takes in the world and does not limit or stop that intake will burst forth in sin.

Envy is a bit different from the other deadly sins in so much that it primarily operates internally. It’s an emotion we often don’t see. It operates like this: What we see we can’t have, what we can’t have becomes our focus, what becomes our focus can often become our god. What it looks at and takes in is what you become whether you intend it or not.

It should not surprise us that we can find the effects of envy everywhere. We can see the effects at work, home, and even church. There is no safe place to hide away from it. Envy is everywhere!
You say, “I don’t envy!” Really, let me test you a bit. Since this is Raven’s country and many people don’t like that town northwest of us called Pittsburgh; how do you feel that the Steelers have won the most Super Bowl’s in NFL history? What if I reminded you that they are the only team to also do this back to back, not once but twice! How are you feeling now? Are you mad or really just envious that your team has not done this? I am going to bet your feeling towards this team is really envy. Even more can you learn from one of the Steelers players on this subject, let’s see…
Professional football player Troy Polamalu, a three-time Pro Bowl strong safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers, has worked hard to maintain his Christian character since joining the NFL in 2003. Before winning his second Super Bowl championship with the Steelers in 2009, Polamalu agreed to an interview for the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). "Pride is tough," Polamalu said to the interviewer. "You go to high school, and it's pride, courage. It's all these types of words that we use to motivate us. I don't think there's anywhere in the Scriptures … where pride was ever a positive characteristic of anybody. That kind of egotism is a really tough struggle—especially in this business. … It's a big struggle of mine."
Polamalu went on to say that it's not the obvious things that are the hardest to deal with in his life. "It's … the big things that are the easiest to turn away from. It's … the accumulation of small things [that are hard]. … People know adultery's bad and murder's bad. I'm not going to go out and sleep with the first girl I see. But when your eyes start wandering, [and you become] a little more jealous and envious, and these passions start rising up inside of you—that's when it really becomes dangerous. Because the Devil doesn't work that way. His strategy is always to be very subtle and continue to build on top of that evil seed that he planted."
Polamalu said prayer keeps him rooted. "As your prayer life becomes more and more fine tuned, and your conscience becomes more and more fine tuned, you're able to start plucking away at these things. [You're] like, 'Wow…this is not good.'"
Being on the lookout for envy and potential pitfalls is certainly a wise approach to life. However, we must also recognize that our enemy is deceptive and his goal is to entangle us in whatever sin he can where our guard is down.

Heavenly Father, help me recognize and confess when envy enters my life. May I never be conceited enough to think that I am beyond sin. May envy be far from me. I pray You continually steer my heart back to yours so that I may be ultimately found humbly helping others. May I be content with my life and thankful, in Jesus Name—Amen!

BTW: I am not a Steelers fan, I love the Broncos. I just can respect a team like the Steelers.