“The pride of your heart has deceived you…” Obadiah 1:3

As the passage points out, pride is deceptive. Often you don’t even realize that you have it. Others must point it out to you! Pride ultimately is what doomed Satan and his angels. They thought they were as good as or even better than God.

I think of two brothers I once knew. They was an fifteen years age difference. The younger said to the older, “I don’t need any help” when he was carrying an extremely heavy load inside the house The older, smiled as he watched his kid brother struggle to accomplish his task. An extra set of hands would have made the load much lighter but the younger boy didn’t want to hear of it. He was going to carry it into the house if it was he last thing he did.

We smile because we’ve seen that kind of interaction between siblings. Why wouldn’t the younger boy accept help? Pride.

Sadly, we say the same thing to God, often without uttering a word. We do things on our own without calling out for God’s input or wisdom or insight. We carry burdens we were never meant to carry.

Now would be a really good time to lift those burdens off and give them over to God. The first step is to admit our pride. It’s a large first step but it will open many other doors.