Pride

I met the monster Pride today. I felt it... saw it... cowered before it. It's ugly.. grotesque... and when it rears it's ugly head, I lose all of my resolve to stand against it. Most of the time I don't even notice it's there... It lies just beneath the surface, and I grow accustomed to it's presence. Haughtily I deny it exists in me... but when it jumps out of hiding, it's unmistakeable. I don't understand why I can't kill it... why I can't tell it to leave and never come back. It haunts me day and night. Sometimes I'm afraid of it, and other times I do everything I can to make it comfortable. What I do not realize is that this monster is me. This pride is me, and I can no sooner tell my arm to leave my body than get rid of the beast. The only thing that will ever kill it would be to assume a new identity... one that has never been defiled by arrogance. I must identify myself with Christ, with His sufferings.... I must die! Oh, thanks be to Jesus that He has set me free from the law of sin and death! Praise God that we can don white robes of righteousness! Pride will only be a problem when I slip back into my own, soiled self. I'm not afraid anymore!

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."

Romans 8:1-2