Pride Blinds Us

2 Kings 5:9-12  (NIV)

9 So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, washyourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”

11 But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.

1. Have you refused advice?

2. Are you critical of others?

3. Do you have an inflated opinion of your own abilities?

4. Have you failed to give a compliment to someone who deserves it?

5. Do you have a hyper-inflated opinion of yourself? 

6. Are you intolerant?

1 Peter 5:6 (NIV)

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

How to get low.

1. Get close to our example Jesus.

Philippians 2:5-8 New International Version (NIV)

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—

        even death on a cross!

2. Always ask for help.

Proverbs 28:13  (NIV)

13 Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper,

    but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

3. Embrace God's love. 

James 4:6  (NIV)

6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud

    but shows favor to the humble.”

Allen Pedram, Church of the Highlands