We are continuing our series on walking in the commandments of Yah. I said before to love God is to know him. Today I would like to add that to love God is to know what He hates. Proverbs 6:16 lists 6 things. However, I will cover only two: pride and lack of faith.
Pride: Are you afflicted by a spirit of pride? All of us will most definitely answer "No" to this question. Although it is easily recognised in others, we seldom recognise it in ourselves. Some of the manifestation of pride include having an inflated view of one's importance, gifts and abilities; perfectionism; always seeking to control; being consumed about what others think; being devastated or angered by criticism; being unteachable; being sarcastic, hurtful or degrading; being defensive and blame-shifting; lack of repentance and asking forgiveness; and the list goes on.
Pride blinds us and causes us to reject the truth. Pride hinders our learning and keeps us from repenting and therefore is an obstacle to walking closely with God. The Word strongly warns against pride: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6). And, "Every one who is arrogant is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished (Pro. 16:5).
Brothers and Sisters, pride comes before the fall (Pro. 16:18). Let us remove this evil from our lives in order to walk closer with our Heavenly Father.
My Father Holy Yahushua, please grant us the courage to take a hard and critical look at ourselves. Please help us to see whether there is any pride within our hearts. Please forgive us and put the axe to the root to remove all traces of pride within us. We humbly submit ourselves to You today to serve You and our neighbour with a lowly spirit and a contrite heart. Aman. (Tomorrow I will discuss lack of faith.)