Using Alpha Power to Deal with Arrogance

UV 2929/10000 Using Alpha Power to Deal with Arrogance
Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished
Proverbs 16 v 5

Pride or arrogance caused one of the chief angels Lucifer to fall. Arrogance is hated by the Lord. Arrogant attitude of heart as well as arrogant words and actions do not go unpunished. Even the spiritual minded can become proud of their spirituality and look down upon others as the Pharisees did. Scripture asks us not to regard ourselves wiser or better than others but to measure ourselves by the extent of our faith. Neither our positions or our possessions should fill us with pride and cause us to lord it over others. Our daily submission in humility before the Lord and continually renewing our hearts and minds with the Word or Alpha power will help to remedy and cure us of pride or arrogance.

Pride leads to envy, dissensions and strife as to who is greater. Even among the disciples of Jesus, we find evidence of some kind of pride and envy. Pride creeps in subtly when we feel strong and self reliant, not dependent on God’s grace. It is written in scripture that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humility is a spiritual fruit engendered in our hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit. The more we receive grace and the Lord lifts us up, the more we should humble ourselves. True humility does not come from a false or outward sense of modesty but recognizing our own weaknesses, failures, our frailties and seeing the weaknesses and frailties of others in ourselves.

Pride or arrogance manifests in our body language, our gestures, our speech and our reactions. But it begins deep in our hearts and minds with a false or exaggerated assessment of ourselves, our abilities, our talents, our character, our influence, our position in life, our family background. Paul dealt with his pride effectively even though he had many gifts and accomplishments both as a Jew and later, as a believer and chief evangelist to the non-Jews. He referred to himself as the worst of sinners, saved by grace of Jesus. Pride and arrogance affects our testimonies and adversely impacts our judgement. It makes us prone to many willful errors. Initially, when we are starting our lives, we may not be proud or arrogant but as we rise in position, power, wealth, influence, the heady mix goes to our heads and we begin to see ourselves as demi-gods who are not accountable to anyone, even God. We stop seeking and listening to good advice and commit blunders that could prove costly for ourselves, our families, our future. This is the process through which even good men get corrupted by power over time. I recently came across a formerly successful businessman who fell into bad times and even lost the house he was staying in to creditors. He told me that due to his pride and arrogance, he kept expanding his business to many cities, he was lavish in his lifestyle and spending, he stopped listening to his business advisers and consequently, the bad debts piled up. The foolish man built his house on sand not because he had no one to advice him but he stopped listening to them and thought he knew better than any builder. When we constantly listen to the wise counsel of Jesus, the embodiment of Alpha and Omega power, we will be able to run the entire course of our lives, without the baggage of pride and arrogance.