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HUMILITY vs. PRIDE |
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Life is a series of attitudes and adjustments.
It will save a young person many problems and give them great
opportunities if they will learn to take a good attitude. Youth
with an “attitude” usually have difficulty finding and keeping good
friends, so they hang with those with similar attitudes and usually get
into trouble. |
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The attitudes I mention today are humility versus
pride. The Holy Bible says: “All of you, clothe yourselves with
humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but gives
grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's
mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” 1 Pet 5:5,6 (NIV). Humbling ourselves is a lot easier than God doing it for
us, but He will if we won’t. The Bible says a lot about humility and
praises it and tells of its rewards. Humility is a personal quality
showing individual dependence on God and a respect for other persons.
Pride is any attitude that elevates our effort or abilities above God's,
or treats with disdain his work in us. It causes us to congratulate
ourselves for our successes and to look down on other people. God does
not object to self-confidence, healthy self-esteem, or good feelings
about our accomplishments. He objects to the foolish attitude of taking
full credit for what he has done or for setting ourselves up as superior
to others. |
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Proud people focus on the failures of others and
can readily point out those faults, but humble people are more conscious
of their own spiritual need than of anyone else’s. Proud people
have a critical, faultfinding spirit. Usually they look at
everyone else’s faults with a microscope, but view their own with a
telescope. They are critical of almost everyone. On the other hand
humble people are compassionate—they have the kind of love that
overlooks a multitude of sins; they can forgive much because they know
how much they have been forgiven. They revere, encourage and talk
to God about others rather than gossip about them. A friend used
to say: “Lord help us all, quick!” |
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