There is one personage in the Bible who is our enemy. First, he is God's enemy, but at one time he was one of God's most beloved angels. Isaiah 14:12, "O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." We know his name as..... Satan.
The Study tells us: "Some believe these verses mean: He is Satan, because the person here is too powerful to be any human king. Pride was Satan's sin. Pride willfully opposes God and will result in judgment. Satan was turned away from heaven and keeps to the earth. Just as Satan has been judged by not entering heaven, Israel made the mistake of being too proud to depend on God and was punished. We, too, are vulnerable to pride, often making the same mistake, and find ourselves on the "outs" with God until we have confessed the sin of pride to our loving God.
Our weakness to pride is like a magnet drawing the fallen angel to our side. Satan loves our inability to have humility. It pleases him to separate us from God by encouraging our prideful manners. Whether we instigate pride or the master liar encourages it, pride does "go before a fall" as claimed in the old platitude.
A good friend of ours used to amuse us by saying, "Don't wave at the crowd too early!" But it kept us from being over-elated sometimes with an accomplishment! This is just one of the many ways to remind us that pride can take us far away from God--very quickly! God does forgive and will love us even in our pridefulness if we repent and are watchful and stay away from pride and its Ungodly Company.
We must remember always that we belong to God and not His enemy! God is good, therefore we also are good when God is within us. Because of God's grace, blessings are ours. But like the old rooster who had crossed the road, there is no point in crowing over the good job that was done or the blessings received! That would invite the old fallen angel to have a go at us all over again!
No blowing of horns; no bows or curtsies,
Just plain old
Jo from MN
No comments:
Post a Comment