What's behind door #3----it may set you free!

A man wakes up in the morning and he feeds his dog and his cat. He fills their water bowls with fresh water and gives each one lots of loving attention.

The dog looks at the man and says, Wow! This is awesome. This guy brings me food, washes me, pets me, scratches me, cleans up after me, and smiles the entire time. This man is worthy of my adoration.

The cat looks at the same man and says, Wow! This is awesome. This guy brings me food, washes me, pets me, scratches me, cleans up after me, and smiles the entire time. I am certainly worthy of his adoration.

Brothers and sisters, do you see the difference?

In this post we will explore the 3rd and final door through which the devil brings temptation and sin; the pride of life. Our scriptural base is this:

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
1 John 2:16
In the illustration above, we see two world views---the objective world view (dog) and the self-centered world view (cat).

The dog looks at the man who provides for him and adores that man because he provides all of the dogs needs. The cat looks at that same man and thinks that it must be entitled to such grand treatment because of its own greatness.

I have come to believe that we are all predisposed to be cats. It is in our very nature to believe the lie that we deserve some sort of reward because of our beauty, or goodness, or talent. Nothing, brothers and sisters could be further from the truth.

We all deserve death and hell. We have all sinned and fallen short of the expectations God has set for us. The just consequence for our sin is death--for the wages of sin is death. This applies universally to all sin. Thus the liar cannot say that his sentence should be lesser than the murders sentence. To God, all sin must be punished, and He does not level sin the way we do. It is all the same. It is all sin. Thus we are all alive on this wonderful creation by the grace of a merciful God.

The pride of life is Satan's biggest, baddest, weapon of mass destruction. It permeates every area of our thinking and lies just beneath our consciousness. Pride is the wide doorway that leads to countless other sins. Our pride is what ultimately connect us to this world because it is our pride that wants to please other people. It wants us to look good in the eyes of other fallen people.

Satan's sin was pride.
"For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.'" (Isaiah 14:13-14)
Satan's plan was to become like God. He deceived himself into believing that he operated under his own power and his own authority. He forgot that he is a created being, thus any good thing that he does is attributable to the creator. He became puffed up, and prideful.

God did the only thing a merciful, loving God would do. He gave Satan what he wanted--he threw Satan out of heaven because Satan no longer wanted to submit to God's authority. Satan's pride separated him from God.

This is what pride does to us. It separates us from God and our true purpose. We were created to glorify our creator. When we begin to say to ourselves, look at he wonderful things 'I' have done, then we take credit for something we did not do. We begin to operate under our own perceived power, and we fail to fulfill our purpose. God will do with the prideful what he did with Satan. He will give them what they want----an eternity with themselves.

We live in a dangerous world system. Our culture puts so much emphasis on self-awareness, self-esteem, self-image, individual choices, and personal decisions; that it is a wonder we all don't worship ourselves and do away with God altogether. What is horrifying is that we talk about those things like they are good. We tweet, and post on facebook, and the endless chatter is all about 'us'. I'm sure Satan loves it.

Remember dear friends, you are not great! You are not even good! Every good thing comes from God. He should get the credit, and He should get the glory. Once we start praising ourselves for being good dancers, good speakers, good writers, having above average beauty, being strong, having exceptional musical talent, we begin to cross the threshold of the 3rd and deadliest door; the pride of life. If you have been given a gift, please remember where it came from. Praise, and glorify, Him! Not you.