God resist the pride

There are many passages in the Bible that are often misquoted in the Christian world.

The one we are going to look at today is this one:

1 Peter 5:5 …“God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”

From this passage, many Christians have deduced that God has an aversion to the proud, and that those who are humble are somehow His favourites. It is thought that God does not tolerate proud people and that He does not even want to have a relationship with them, because He resists having a relationship with them.

We then have the impression that God is resisting as if to prevent the proud from moving forward. A good image would be to see God putting His hand in front of the proud and resisting them so that they cannot pass.

If this were true, and if God really had a problem with those who are proud to the point of resisting them and choosing not to have a relationship with them, then several problems would arise.

I am not saying that God loves pride, not at all. But if God could not stand the proud, as we often hear in some Christian circles, then how could He have given His son for the proud?

When the apostle Peter says that God resists the proud, he is talking to young people but also to older people about their relationships with each other. The Bible says that God loves His creature, one of the most telling acts of the person of God is found in the fact that He Himself came to earth in order to organise His own sacrifice so that sin would be removed from the face of the earth.

What Peter is saying here is that pride is a barrier in our relationship with God. In other words, he is saying that pride is a way of thinking that cuts off any spiritual relationship with God. So it is not God who cuts off the relationship, it is us.

It is in this sense that it is written that God resists the proud. God is love and cannot possibly have a relationship based on pride.

So it is not God who shuts off the connection. When I am proud, it is I who disconnects or restricts the connection, the relationship I have with God.

Pride cuts off all spiritual reception from God, simply because pride will act as a barrier between God and me.

That is why it is written that God resists the proud. When I choose to express pride I will put a barrier between God and me, and nothing will be able to pass through it.

Why that?

Simply because pride drives those who practice it to focus on themselves. As I often say, pride consists in considering "Me, I, and Myself". Everything revolves around me. Pride refuses outside help, because it gives the false idea that people can always manage on their own. This is why it is now easy to understand that pride rejects the person of God. God is there to help me, to counsel me, to educate me, and these things are all rejected by pride.

The original word translated as "resist" in the passage we have quoted is: ANTITASSOMAI.

This word gives the notion of an army in battle in order that nothing can get through. And this is what it is all about, the pride we express acts as a barrier between God and us, through which nothing can pass.

So we are the ones who are at the origin of this resistance, of this disconnection, and not God.

1 Peter 5:5 … Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility,

If pride is a barrier for receiving from God, humility is a great help in receiving all that God wants to give us.

Humility is therefore the perfect antidote to pride.

Humility in faith is an activator of blessings!

If you are concerned about this, know that God loves you with your pride. It is you who may be depriving yourself of blessings, healing, provision, or whatever else, because of that pride. God loves you as you are, but if you choose to express humility instead of pride, you will enhance your relationship with Him, you will improve your transformation in His image, with all the consequences that this may have on your life and the lives of your loved ones.

The rest of this passage says that God gives grace to the humble, not that His grace is available only to the humble, but by being humble you open a valve above you to receive and activate all that God wants and has already given you.

Grace is in opposition to pride.

Why is this?

Simply because the grace that is available to us causes us to abandon ourselves in total trust in God. Without this trust, it will be impossible for us to take advantage of what is available to us.

Pride, on the other hand, wants to do things by itself without outside help, because it is full of itself.

That is why it is impossible to enjoy grace and to show pride at the same time.

I don't know of anyone who has come back to me saying that he or she regrets getting rid of pride. No one I know of who, having fully entered into total trust in God, wanted to return to the starting point and manifest pride by taking back the reins of his or her life.

It seems to me that this is the best sign to show that humans are not made to express pride.

There is a very important point about pride.

Have you noticed that the vast majority of people who express pride are the first to say that they are not proud?

And that's the whole problem. The one who is proud is prevented by his own pride from confessing that he is proud. Of course this is not a rule, but it is something that can easily be seen in most cases.

In these circumstances, the one and only antidote that works is humility. Only the manifestation of humility will allow me to realise that I am in a problem of pride.

The obvious sign that a person is in a position of pride is that he or she refuses to acknowledge it. Often when we talk to a person and gently and calmly highlight their pride, if they become annoyed or angry then there is a good chance that they are in a position of pride.

This is why it is important to know that the only remedy against pride is to decide to manifest humility.

Pride has the particularity of changing my view of reality. But humility gives me an accurate vision of reality.

Bye for now.