Joy and Pride are NOT Relatives

            Have you had your JOY JUICE today?  Joy and pride are not found on the same shelf!

            Throughout Scripture we are told about the consequences of pride. Proverbs 16:18-19 tells us that “pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.”  

            A prideful attitude does nothing to build up and edify.  Just the opposite is true. Pride keeps people from humbling themselves before God and realizing their need for salvation. Pride in children keeps parents from seeing their children's faults and disciplining and correcting them to make them better. Pride in self keeps us selfish and self-centered. Only God knows how many nations, marriages, families, churches, businesses, lives, etc. have been wrecked by pride.  

Jesus’ example is quite opposite. Philippians 2:5-7 says,

 “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God,  did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing,  taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”
 
           We should all put away selfish pride and drink the Joy Juice of Jesus with a spirit of humility!