How to Avoid the Traps of Pride

Pride is one of the most insidious and dangerous tools of Satan. How can we recognize it and avoid its destructive influence in our lives?

What do you think about when you hear the word pride? Maybe someone who is puffed up? Or someone who thinks he or she is superior to others? While these are all examples of pride, pride extends much deeper than that. It’s something that we all battle every day, even if we do not realize it. How can we accurately identify pride, and how can we combat it?

C.J. Mahaney, author of the book Humility: True Greatness, writes: “Pride is when sinful human beings aspire to the status and position of God and refuse to acknowledge their dependence upon Him” (p. 31).

Mahaney correctly identifies what many miss concerning pride: pride boils down to self-glorification and not giving glory to God where it is due.

A way to remember this is to use the word EGO as an acronym. EGO can stand for “edging God out,” which is exactly what occurs when we give in to pride.

Pride and the first sin

One example of this is the most ancient sin recorded in the Bible. Isaiah 14:13 tells us that Lucifer said in his heart, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.” Verse 14 continues this line of thinking: “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.”

What was Lucifer trying to do? Instead of remaining submissive and dependent on God, he was aspiring to take God’s status and position.

Ezekiel 28 reveals more. The beginning of Ezekiel 28:17 says, concerning Lucifer, “Your heart became proud on account of your beauty” (New International Version). In Hebrew, the root word of “heart” in this verse is leb, which means someone’s innermost being.

Lucifer’s innermost being was filled with pride; it defined him. He wanted to be as powerful and important as God. He refused to acknowledge his dependence on God and wanted self-glorification. This thinking consumed him then and still does today. He bombards all of us with thoughts of pride on a daily basis (Ephesians 2:2).

Pride in the Garden

Another example is found in the biblical account of the first human sin. Adam and Eve had been told what they could and could not eat in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 3:4-5 says, “Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”

Did you catch that? Satan told Eve that if she ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, she would become like God. He was bombarding her with thoughts of pride, of being like God and not acknowledging her need for God.

Satan was promising her and Adam divine prerogatives of deciding for themselves what is right and wrong. He enticed them with the appeal of “I know what is best for me.”

When we disobey God, that is, in essence, what we are doing. We are not glorifying God, but instead glorifying ourselves.

Consider the last sin that you committed. Maybe you recently told your friend a “white lie,” and you did it so that you would not hurt your friend’s feelings. But what does God say? That we are to tell the truth in love with no reservations. So what happened? You told a white lie because, when it boils down to it, you thought you knew better than God in that situation. And what was the result? You did not acknowledge God’s supremacy.

Can you see why pride is a huge influence in our lives and something that we must work on daily to root out?

Avoiding the traps of pride

What can we do to prevent ourselves from falling into some of the traps of pride? Here are some practical points that we can use to help us reduce self-glorification and focus on God instead.

1. Apply biblical lessons to ourselves.

Have we ever heard a church message or read an article and thought, wow, I hope “so and so” heard that? He really needs to hear this! We all have many areas that we can improve in. Chances are we have room to improve in almost every area of our lives.

When we start thinking another person needs to improve in certain areas, we are thinking that we have mastered that area. No one other than Jesus Christ has ever had perfect faith. Or perfect love. Or perfect anything. If we think we have completely perfected something, we have started to think that we are on the same level as God. Pride has won.

2. Serve in areas that do not draw attention to ourselves.

There are certain acts of service that are seen by everyone, but we should also try to focus on areas of service that are not typically seen by many others. Clean the church hall. Call a widow or a single person during the week. Send someone a card. Babysit for parents of young children so they can have a date night. Eat snacks with a couple who are by themselves. Doing some of these things can help ensure that while we are serving, the glory is going to God and not to ourselves.

As we continually try to root sin out, we must make sure we focus on our pride. Pride is thinking that we are equal to God and that we do not need to depend on or glorify Him. When we sin, we are being prideful. By realizing the full extent of pride and using God’s help to eliminate as much of it as we can, we will start to see improvements in all areas of our lives.

For more insight on the dangers of pride, read “Overcoming Dangerous Emotions: Pride.”