Be the killer--not the kill-ee

Be killing sin or it will be killing you.

Personally, I tend to be a lover--not a killer.
However, there is one thing that has given me enough trouble in this life to stir up more than a little righteous indignation, and that's pride.
I recognize it in a few specific people in my life and it irritates me like nothing else.
They are the ultimate critics, will let few in on their real problems and sin, and act as though they are the authority on every subject-- even when they are biologically or experiencially inadequate to have any say in the matter.

Now this blog would sound like a glorified rant against prideful people, and it IS, except for my real point is this:

Me. It's me. I do these things and don't even recognize I'm doing them and really, I don't find the behaviors nearly as irritating in myself as I do in others. Really though maybe that's WHY I find these behaviors so irritating in others, because they mirror the worst of myself.

There was a point in my life not so very long ago that I was consistently recognizing pride and the many shapes it was taking in my life and actively fighting it. I fear that more recently, however, I have become complacent and befriended this worst of all enemies of my God given soul.

Pride is so sneaky.
It makes me feel important and worthy.
It makes me feel secure--in my ability.
It lies.

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a people for his own possession,
that you may proclaim the excellencies of him
who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light."
1 Peter 2:9

Oh,That I may proclaim HIS excellencies and not my own.

Perhaps Proverbs says it best?

"Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;
a stranger, and not your own lips."
Proverbs 27:1

LORD give me a hospitable heart for You--one that recognizes pride and hates the self-worship it causes.