Pride = Destruction

The following is an excerpt from the book "Landmines," by Charles Stanley.

Pride entices us to favor people who build up our egos. Everyone wants to feel accepted and loved. The best way to rid your life of pride is to surround yourself with people who care for you for the right reasons and not just to stroke your ego. Pride is a stumbling block for many leaders because there is a tendency to be surrounded by those who say what they believe the leader wants to hear.

Pride sets the stage for us to make foolish mistakes. The enemy is waiting for the right oppourtunity to tempt us to venture away from God's principles with words of pride and self-reliance. The prideful person will cease to seek godly wisdom and advice. He will think that he is too smart to need someone else's help or insight; that he can handle everything alone; that he needs to be the one who does the project, completes the tasks, or achieves the goal because no one else can do it as well. Remember, pride isolates. Satan wants you to be on your own doing what you think only you can do. He knows when you make a mistake and your world begins to crash around you, you will not have a godly support system to help sustain you. You will be alone in your pride, and you will experience the painfulness that comes from this loneliness.

"By pride comes nothing but strife, But with the well-advised is wisdom." -Proverbs 13:10

"The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate." -Proverbs 8:13

"Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall." -Proverbs 16:18