Dangerous Pride
Bible Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:12-13
We continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
When we begin to experience the benefits of recovery, it's easy to forget the power of our addictions. When we grow comfortable in our sobriety, we may begin to trust ourselves more than we should. We need to stay on the lookout for pride; it is a danger each of us must seek to crush.
King Solomon wisely noted, "Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18). The apostle Paul also cautioned us, "If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure" (1 Corinthians 10:12-13).
Pride whispers to us, "Don't worry, you can handle this one; you're not like those addicts anymore." It is pride that pushes us to take foolish chances by walking into situations that support our addictions. We will never be able to "handle" making provisions for our compulsive inclinations. When we start to tell ourselves that we can, we're entertaining pride, which will only lead to our downfall. Pride often masquerades behind progress. We must be vigilant to reveal and abandon it whenever it tiptoes into our lives.
Even the pride we feel in our recovery can set us up for temptation and relapse.
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Taken from The Life Recovery Devotional: Thirty Meditations from Scripture for Each Step in Recovery by Stephen Arterburn and David Stoop. Copyright © 1991 by Stephen Arterburn and David Stoop. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
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