Smother Guilt by Pride

This is one of six responses that we have built into our life systems to deal with our guilt.

How we are perceived in public or esteemed by our circle of friends is for most people an all-consuming passion.

Listen carefully to the rationalizing and the explanations when a person is charged with having violated a law or is exposed for unsavoury behaviour.

The sinister manoeuvres towards self-exoneration – there is no limit to which the mind will not stoop for cover when wanting to appear justified.

Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent and it appeared that the buck stopped there.  King Saul was
a humble man who became king of Israel saw nothing in himself to make him worthy of such privilege.  Yet the brief enjoyment of power left its deadly aftertaste and poisoned his mind into believing that he was indeed due that greatness and acclaim.

•To strut into a courtroom guilty and claim innocence is not power but weakness
•To refuse to acknowledge failure is not success but self-deception
•To resist repentance before God is not intelligence but folly
•To be puffed up with pride in the face of wrongdoing is not to become bigger but to become hollow

“Of all the causes which conspire to blind our erring judgment, and misguide the mind; What the weak head with strongest bias rules, - Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools” - Alexander Pope, English Poet, 1688-1744

“The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility. You may remember, when I was talking about sexual morality, I warned you that the centre of Christian morals did not lie there. Well, now, we have come to the centre. According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.” - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

This is why, as Jesus finished his 40 days in the desert, Satan presented his first two temptations before Jesus, appealing to His pride was an essential element - changing the stones to bread, and the world will follow you and jump and see if the angels will protect you.

"Humility is thinking less about yourself not thinking less of yourself. Pride is not pleasure in being praised, wanting to please others. The truly proud person could care less what others think of her…” - Peter Kreeft, Professor of Philosophy at Boston College

The lowest point of pride comes when an excuse to explain a choice is not even sought because the choice is deemed sufficient explanation for any action. When a point of not caring for any other person’s counsel or warning has been reached, when we bask in our own success, thinking ourselves invincible, then God might need to take drastic measures to break that stranglehold upon us.

 "In order to overcome their pride, God punishes certain men by allowing them to fall into sins of the flesh which, though they be less grievous, are evidently, outwardly, humanly more shameful. From this, indeed, the gravity of pride is made manifest, for just as a wise physician in order to cure a worse disease allows the patient to contract one that is less dangerous, so the sin of pride is shown to be more grievous by the very fact that as a remedy, God allows men to fall into other sins.” - Thomas Aquinas

Jesus consistently reminded His audience that the glory of His kingdom was not shown in the power of individual attainments but in the simplicity of a little child’s faith.