pride comes before the fall. God resists pride. Giving God Glory

Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt

God wants you to be victorious on many levels in your life.

He wants you to be victorious over demonic forces and attacks that come against you. He wants you to be victorious in drawing strength to resist the temptations of carnal impulses. He wants you to grow in wisdom and stature in representing Him in this earth. He wants you to rise up to be who you were created to be in Christ. His Word is filled with covenant promises promising His help. He desires success for you in all these areas, probably more than you do! Jeremiah 33:3 NKJV declares, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”

Our victories in and through God, come by learning to trust and stand strong in faith in the promises of His word rather than ourselves. Does the Lord want your best effort? Of course He does! Wouldn’t you hope and desire that from your children? If you were a good parent you would! But, if we give our best effort, which is good, it still won’t be enough for you to experience what He wants you to experience. God’s plan is to be involved in your life and to help you with what you could never accomplish in your own strength. That’s what His grace—His supernatural help, does! Proverbs 16:9 (NLT) confirms this saying, “We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.” This is true for those that seek God’s love and help through faith!

David was one of the greatest warriors that ever lived. Quite an accomplishment considering he was a shepherd boy who was the youngest of many brothers, and the subject of intense ridicule growing up. What is it that saved him from becoming an insecure and dysfunctional person that would one day blame all his problems on His family, upbringing, and God failing him? It was simply his intense love and worship of God. It led to his constant communion with and trust in God. David was known for these qualities. The favor of God upon David’s life was evident to all.

David had reached a point in his life where he defeated all of his enemies. Every surrounding kingdom and people had been defeated or subdued by him. His army had become the most powerful in the world. He had reached the pinnacle of greatness in his life. Satan loves when people reach greatness. For most, it becomes an opportune moment where he waits to tempt with pride. He whispers, Look what you’ve accomplished! You are great! You should be so proud of yourself! It’s a time where this is no shortage of people patting you on the back. They’re all shouting Look at the great things you’ve done! It’s a time where God can be pushed to the background while the ego becomes inflated. It’s a time where one begins to take credit and glory for what God has done deceptively believing it was their own personal accomplishment.

At this moment of greatness for David, Satan tempted him to go count all the people in His kingdom. Why? So David could expand and bask in the greatness he was feeling about himself. 1 Chronicles 21:1-2 NLT says, “Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.” David yielded to this temptation and reduced the greatest fighting men in the world, to now go out and be census takers. They were humiliated. They were the greatest warriors on the earth, not accountants! They didn’t want to do this and were humiliated in doing so. But David had slipped into pride and when it was done, God pronounced judgment upon him. David experienced what he already knew deep down. Proverbs 29:23 (NLT) “Pride ends in
humiliation, while humility brings honor.”

Pride manifests itself in many ways. God wants us to be victorious and wants to help you experience success. But, He does not want you to slip into pride. The most important thing to know in any accomplishment or victory in life, is that it came because God’s grace equipped us to obtain it.

Everyone has to deal with pride. Some more than others but no one is immune from it. And we want to deal with it! Why? Because in James 4:6 we are told, “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” Grace is God’s supernatural help and equipping that aids us in achieving what He gives us to achieve in life. Without it we would all be nothing. Every good thing we achieve in life is because of it. EVERYTHING! Therefore, grace is something to be greatly cherished. If we think we are anything, we have let pride come in and face God resisting us. Pride is destructive and stupid. The point of experiencing victory is that it gives the platform to influence others with the love and gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s not the platform of pride thinking you are a gift to humanity.

True humility is knowing that God’s grace is the source of every good thing and success in your life. God does care about your success! He wants you to experience it! He just wants you to keep your ego and pride out, and use your successes to be a light and blessing for Jesus to the world!

1 Corinthians 15:57 (NKJV) “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”

In His love,
Pastor Tim Burt

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