Dealing with the Twin Foxes: Pride and Arrogance

UV 1523/10000 Dealing with the Twin Foxes : Pride and Arrogance

The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.
Proverb 8 v 13

Pride is the original sin that caused even the angels to fall. It is accompanied by the spirit of arrogance. These twin foxes creep subtly into almost anyone’s life. We might not even realize that we have become proud or conceited or egoistic. Samson’s pride about his great strength made him think that he was invincible. He let down his guard and even when to the extent of literally sleeping with the enemy. It led to his eventual humiliation and destruction at the hands of the Philistines. We need to catch the foxes of pride and arrogance, tie them tail to tail and set the bushy tails on fire. The fear of the Lord makes us wise through cultivating the spirit of humility. Scripture says that the Lord hates all forms of pride. He resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. If God resists us, we can never overcome Him. If He yields grace to us, we can never be overcome.


When the chosen ones of God are proud, the Lord uses a process of attrition to break down their pride. Moses initially was proud of his upbringing in Pharaoh’s household as a prince of Egypt. But after he killed an Egyptian and had to flee for his life, he spent years in the wilderness, looking after Jethro’s sheep. His pride was broken. Thereafter, God certified him to be the humblest of all men. We can be an useful vessel for the Lord only when we are broken and empty before Him. He will then fill us with His grace, wisdom and power. He will enable us to do that which He intended us to do. The Lord respects the lowly and meek and lifts them up in due time. He humbles the proud as He did with Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.


Our words reflect our inner attitudes. We should not boast of our own achievements or qualities but only speak of what the Lord has done in our lives. Pride and arrogance can afflict even spiritual people. It will manifest as a kind of self righteousness or a “holier than thou” attitude. St Paul dealt with it by openly declaring himself to be the worst of sinners even though he was one of the greatest of apostles. We preserve ourselves from great evil by humbling ourselves before the Lord every single day. We need to clothe ourselves with humility by saying that we are nothing but dust but for the grace of the Lord. Humility however does not mean a false sense of modesty where outwardly we profess to be humble but inwardly we entertain thoughts that we are truly great or worthy. We need to set fire to the roots of pride and arrogance or any trace of it in our lives. We manifest our humility by subjecting or submitting to others and regarding others better than us in many ways.



Prateep V Philip