Pride
First pride, then the crash—
the bigger the ego, the harder the fall. ~ Proverbs 16:18 (MSG)
If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.
Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. ~ Galatians 6:3-4 (NLT)
KEY IDEA:
Pride leads to all kinds of problems.
PRAYER:
Lord, you are the only one who should have a big ego. Yet you humble yourself to work with humanity and to send your Son to be one of us. You even welcome people like me into your presence. That's ironic because your gracious attention so easily get's turned into personal pride for me. I am cocky and overconfident -- eager to express my opinion about most everything. Save me from the sin of pride. I want to be a humble servant of Christ Jesus. For that is the only way to really serve him. Amen.
TRANSLATIONS
ABP = Authorized Boydston Paraphrase — my own freestyle biblical adaptation — somewhere between paraphrase, commentary, and sermon
CEB = Common English Bible (©2011, the Common English Bible)
CEV = Contemporary English Version (©1995, American Bible Society)
MSG = The Message (©1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson)
NIRV = New International Reader's Version (©1996, 1998, Biblica)
NIV = New International Version (©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011, Biblica)
NLT = New Living Translation (©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, Tyndale House Foundation)
NRSVue = New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (© 2021 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.) NTE = New Testament for Everyone (©2011 Nicolas Thomas Wright.)
REB = Revised English Bible (© 1989 Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press) TCEB = The Casual English Bible (© Stephen M. Miller)