Edition 40 of my Pride study

Monday, October 10th

Edition 40 of my Pride study

Obadiah 1:1-4
1 The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Sovereign LORD says about Edom— We have heard a message from the LORD: An envoy was sent to the nations to say, "Rise, and let us go against her for battle"- 2 "See, I will make you small among the nations; you will be utterly despised. 3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, 'Who can bring me down to the ground?' 4 Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down," declares the LORD.

Deceive (verb):

1. To cause to believe what is not true; mislead.


2. To give a false impression.


3. Be false to; be dishonest with.


4. Cause someone to believe an untruth.

My pride deceives me, makes me believe I am better than I am. How can I discover the pride within me? How can I become the better disciple I want to be?

Acts 2:42-47
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Devote (verb):

1. To give or apply (one's time, attention, or self) entirely to a particular activity, pursuit, cause, or person.


2. To set apart for a specific purpose or use.


3. To set apart by or as if by a vow or solemn act; consecrate

I believe that if I devote myself to the fellowship, then my pride can be exposed. I, myself, cannot look inward and see every sin that is within me. I need brothers, disciples in my life, friends who can be honest with me, and tell me the sin that is in my life. This study has been more than awesome. I wish I could take the credit for wanting to do this study for me, but alas, my motivation was the sin I saw in someone else and wanted to be humble enough and get the plank, well actually it is a whole forest, out of my eye. It is interesting, the word devote (devoted) is used only 46 times in the bible (NIV), and every time it is used, it is a very serious thing to God (or so it seems skimming through them all). Some things that really stood out:

Matthew 6:24
"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

1 Corinthians 7:5
Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

Colossians 4:2
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

Titus 3:14
Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.

So the question I must ask myself, am I devoting myself to God? Am I giving a solemn act to fellowship? Am I pursuing the scripture? Am I going after the breaking of bread and prayer? If I am not, then I am not devoting myself to the commands of God. If I am not devoting myself to the commands of God, then I am giving a false impression to myself, thus deceiving myself and there lies the pride of my heart. Ho hum, what a convicting study this pride study has been for me. It has really opened my eyes. And with the lesson on Sunday (notes still to come – I am about a week behind on those…), I can compare myself to before I have done the study and see that I have grown quite a bit. But I am not satisfied with that. I have grown to love studying out the bible in this way, and look forward with anticipation of what I will learn next. Hopefully, in another few months, I can look back to now and see that I have grown even more. Time will tell. I look forward to hearing from you all. Johnny Out.