Pride
Pres. Benson, Chapter 18: Beware of Pride
President Uchtdorf’s
talk on pride – Oct. 2010:
Pride
a gateway sin that leads to a host of other human weaknesses. In fact, it could
be said that every other sin is, in essence, a manifestation of pride.
-Uchtdorf
Video clip of this quote 8:42 minutes
– 10:19
We Must Not
Inhale
When I was called as a General Authority, I was blessed to be
tutored by many of the senior Brethren in the Church. One day I had the
opportunity to drive President James E. Faust to a stake conference. During the
hours we spent in the car, President Faust took the time to teach me some
important principles about my assignment. He explained also how gracious the
members of the Church are, especially to General Authorities. He said, “They
will treat you very kindly. They will say nice things about you.” He laughed a
little and then said, “Dieter, be thankful for this. But don’t you ever inhale
it.”
That is a good lesson for us all, in any calling or life
situation. We can be grateful for our
health, wealth, possessions, or positions, but when we begin to inhale it—when
we become obsessed with our status; when we focus on our own importance, power,
or reputation; when we dwell upon our public image and believe our own press
clippings—that’s when the trouble begins; that’s when pride begins to corrupt.
Uchtdorf
on how do we Conquer pride?
So how do we conquer this sin of
pride that is so prevalent and so damaging? How do we become more
humble?
It is almost impossible to be
lifted up in pride when our hearts are filled with charity. “No one
can assist in this work except he shall be humble and full of love.” 22 When we
see the world around us through the lens of the pure love of Christ, we begin
to understand humility.
Some suppose that humility is about beating ourselves up.
Humility does not mean convincing ourselves that we are worthless, meaningless,
or of little value. Nor does it mean denying or withholding the talents God has
given us. We don’t discover humility by
thinking less of ourselves;
we discover humility by thinking less about ourselves. It comes as we go about our work
with an attitude of serving God and our fellowman.
Humility directs our attention and love toward others and to
Heavenly Father’s purposes. Pride does the opposite. Pride draws its energy and
strength from the deep wells of selfishness. The moment we stop obsessing with ourselves and lose ourselves in service,
our pride diminishes and begins to die.
Elder Bednar:
We will only receive spiritual gifts and talents when we
are in the right place at the right time so
that the Lord can use us to bless somebody else.
I think in the culture of the Church we have a peculiar
way of talking about talents like, “I have these talents” and sometimes there
is an arrogance about that, like “Aren’t you so lucky that I am bringing my
talent to bless you?” In which case I
think there is no talent, it has been removed.
So it is not just that you have one talent or a
particular capacity, there is a wide range of talents and capacities with which
the Lord can bless you with because you will be in the right place at the right
time and that talent or gift will be
used to bless someone else. We only have these so we can be the conduit
through whom God can bless people.
So if you are striving not to get them as if they are
trophies to display, but if the real intent of our heart is to be good, to be
worthy, so that God if he needed me could use me.
How Do We Combat
Pride?
1-
Uchtdorf
- Charity Conquers pride:
So how do we conquer this sin of pride that is so prevalent and
so damaging? How do we become more humble?
It is almost impossible to be lifted up in pride when our hearts
are filled with charity. “No one can assist in this work except he shall be
humble and full of love.” 22 When we
see the world around us through the lens of the pure love of Christ, we begin
to understand humility.
Some suppose that humility is about beating ourselves up.
Humility does not mean convincing ourselves that we are worthless, meaningless,
or of little value. Nor does it mean denying or withholding the talents God has
given us. We don’t discover humility by thinking less of ourselves;
we discover humility by thinking less about ourselves. It comes as we go about our work with
an attitude of serving God and our fellowman.
Humility directs our attention and love toward others and to
Heavenly Father’s purposes. Pride does the opposite. Pride draws its energy and
strength from the deep wells of selfishness. The moment we stop obsessing with
ourselves and lose ourselves in service, our pride diminishes and begins to
die.
2-
Recognize the
enabling power of the atonement in our lives.
When we can recognize the enabling power of the atonement in
our lives this solves the problem of pride. We realize how much the Lord is
helping us to improve and do well which keeps us from getting puffed up about
ourselves.
Read Jacob 4:6
6 Wherefore, we search the prophets, and we have many revelations
and the spirit of aprophecy; and having all these bwitnesses we
obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can ccommand in the dname of Jesus
and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea.
Jacob 4:6-7, 8-10– notice that
verse 7 begins with “Nevertheless” - “Nevertheless” is what they call a
connecting word because it shows that the two sentences are a related thought.
7 Nevertheless,
the Lord God showeth us our aweakness that
we may know that it is by his bgrace, and his
great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these
things.
Ether
12:27 has a similar theme.
I think there are many times when Grace and the enabling
power are operating in our lives and it is like when “as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time
of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they
knew it not.” In our pride, we think we are becoming something on our
own.
Pride - A Personal Checklist (list taken from Pres. Benson’s talk)
·
Pride is a
very misunderstood sin, and many are sinning in ignorance. In the scriptures
there is no such thing as righteous pride. Therefore, we must understand how
God uses the term so we can understand the language of holy writ and profit
thereby.
·
The central feature
of pride is enmity—enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means
“hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.” It is the power by
which Satan wishes to reign over us.
·
Pride is a sin that
can readily be seen in others but is rarely admitted in ourselves.
General categories of pride:
Disobedience is essentially a prideful power struggle
Selfishness is one of the more common faces of pride.
§
self-conceit, self-seeking
§
self-gratification, worldly
self-fulfillment
§
self-pity
Pride
in not just those on the top looking down; far more common is pride from the
bottom looking up, it is manifest in:
·
faultfinding, gossiping,
backbiting
·
murmuring
·
living beyond our
means
·
envying, coveting
·
withholding
gratitude and praise that might lift another
·
being unforgiving
and jealous
Another face of
pride is contention:
·
arguments
·
fights
·
unrighteous dominion
·
generation gaps
·
divorces
·
spouse abuse
·
riots, disturbances
·
Contention in our families drives the Spirit of the Lord away.
It also drives many of our family members away.
Our enmity toward God takes on many labels:
·
rebellion
·
hard-heartedness
·
stiff-neckedness
·
unrepentant
·
puffed up
·
easily offended
·
sign seekers
·
wish God would agree
with them
·
aren’t interested in
changing opinion to agree with God’s
Enmity
toward our fellowmen:
·
tempted daily
to elevate ourselves above others
·
desire to diminish others
·
pit their intellects, opinions & works against others
·
compare wealth,
talents, or any other worldly measuring device against others
·
stand more in fear of men’s judgment than of God’s judgment
·
“What will men think
of me?” weighs heavier than “What will God think of me?”
·
The proud love “the
praise of men more than the praise of God.
·
Our motives
for the things we do are where the sin is manifest.
“Pride a gateway sin that leads to a host of
other human weaknesses. In fact, it could be said that every other sin is, in
essence, a manifestation of pride.” –President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Pres. Uchtdorf – The Gift of Grace -
Apr. 2015
What does the
story of Simon teach us about pride?
In the
Bible we read of Christ’s visit to the home of Simon the Pharisee.
Outwardly,
Simon seemed to be a good and upright man. He regularly checked off his to-do
list of religious obligations: he kept the law, paid his tithing, observed the
Sabbath, prayed daily, and went to the synagogue.
But while
Jesus was with Simon, a woman approached, washed the Savior’s feet with her
tears, and anointed His feet with fine oil.
Simon was
not pleased with this display of worship, for he knew that this woman was a
sinner. Simon thought that if Jesus didn’t know this, He must not be a prophet
or He would not have let the woman touch him.
Perceiving
his thoughts, Jesus turned to Simon and asked a question. “There was a certain
creditor which had two debtors: … one owed five hundred pence, … the other fifty.
“And when
they [both] had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me
therefore, which of them will love him most?”
Simon
answered that it was the one who was forgiven the most.
Then Jesus taught a profound lesson: “Seest thou this woman?
… Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the
same loveth little.”24
Which of
these two people are we most like?
Are we
like Simon? Are we confident and comfortable in our good deeds, trusting in our
own righteousness? Are we perhaps a little impatient with those who are not
living up to our standards? Are we on autopilot, going through the motions,
attending our meetings, yawning through Gospel Doctrine class, and perhaps
checking our cell phones during sacrament service?
Or are we
like this woman, who thought she was completely and hopelessly lost because of
sin?
Do we love much?
Do we
understand our indebtedness to Heavenly Father and plead with all our souls for
the grace of God?
When we kneel to pray, is it to replay the greatest hits of our
own righteousness, or is it to confess our faults, plead for God’s mercy, and
shed tears of gratitude for the amazing plan of redemption?25
Salvation cannot be bought with the currency of obedience; it is
purchased by the blood of the Son of God.26 Thinking that we can trade our good works for
salvation is like buying a plane ticket and then supposing we own the airline.
Or thinking that after paying rent for our home, we now hold title to the
entire planet earth.
No comments:
Post a Comment