“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17).

Pride was the original sin. The lusts of the eyes and flesh were outward expressions of disobedience through Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:6). Satan, a former angel, was so consumed with pride after God created the world that he persuaded one third of heaven’s angels to follow him into rebellion and darkness, which resulted in his exile (Ezekiel 28:13-15). In the same way, Satan persuaded Eve that she could be like God rather than obey Him. Pride murdered Abel, fueled the Tower of Babel, and moved the Hand of God to flood the whole earth, all within the first seven chapters of Genesis. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” is explicitly reiterated seven times throughout scripture. God designed us with the ability to learn through repetition. So, when God repeats Himself, He is teaching us a very important lesson.

Sin is anything that separates. For example, I sin against my brother or sister if I say or do something that creates a wedge between us. In turn, I am still guilty if I withhold forgiveness for being offended. However, when I sin against my brother or sister, I also sin against God, because we are all made in the image of God (Genesis 9:6) and His Spirit dwells within us (Romans 8:9-11). So, if I withhold love and forgiveness, I punish myself instead of the one who hurt me. I like how Pastor Franklin describes it when he says, “Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and hoping that the other person gets sick.”

I used to worry all the time if I was sinning. I laugh at the irony of that now. Sin is not complicated. In fact, scripture tells us that all sin falls into one of three categories: The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. I now measure every thought and action against this standard. I no longer live in fear because I surrender each of these temptations daily, understanding that pride is a heart condition whereas the lust of the eyes and flesh are outward expressions of disobedience. It is possible to surrender the eyes and flesh without surrendering pride, but not vice versa, because pride is the root source.

The good news is that Jesus died for our sins. Isaiah 53:5 tells us that “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” Simplified, transgressions are sins we commit outwardly, and iniquities are sins we commit in our hearts, on the inside. For this reason, Jesus endured wounds on the outside of his body and bruises within. Praise the Lord for His willingness to suffer and die so that we can have eternal life. The gift of eternal life is free, but we must choose if we will accept it. Jesus said “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

One day, we will all give an account for way we spent this gift of life on earth. If we face God on our own, we fall short of His glory, regardless of how good we think we are. Jesus died in order to represent us on the day of judgement (Matthew 10:32). Through His death, burial, and resurrection, He paid the ultimate price for every sin ever committed, making a way for us to be forgiven for separating ourselves from God and protecting us from an eternity of separation from His presence and perfect love. God created us in His image to desire intimacy in relationships because He desires intimacy in relationship with each of us. It is impossible to experience the fullness of love and intimacy without God because God is love (1 John 4:7-21). He desires our time and attention and wants us to have confidence in knowing Him personally. This invitation to know Him and be known is available to anyone who confesses that Jesus is Lord and believes that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9-10). By inviting His Holy Spirit to fill us, we become adopted as His sons and daughters as well as heirs to His Kingdom where we will rule and reign with Him. God is so generous that He wants to share His authority with us, here and in heaven. Let Jesus take His rightful throne as the King of your heart. It feels good to be a child of the King. But remember, He is holy, so honor Him and acknowledge Him in all you do, and He will reward you in this life and the next.

The bad news is that Whack-a-Mole is rigged. As a child, I grew up near a Showbiz Pizza Place, before it was called Chuck E. Cheese. I used to love whacking those pesky moles with the hammer as quickly as they would shoot up. The funny thing about that game is that it does not offer tickets as a reward because you cannot win. The only reward is the pride of temporarily disabling the never-ending onslaught of opposition. Similarly, and as Christians, we sometimes play this game with sin, thinking that we can temporarily disable certain outward expressions of our sinful nature without destroying the root. This results in a never-ending battle of will-power wherein the only reward is in the appearance of holiness. It’s like a snake shedding its skin, pretending to be renewed, all the while growing more monstrous as it discards old pride for new.

Cutting down trees is easy. Cleaning up is the hard part. I remember hiring some arborists to cut down several trees that were growing dangerously close to the Lighthouse. It was a lot of fun shouting “timber!” as the giants came crashing down. However, it created a huge mess that took a long time to clear away. I discovered that renting a skid steer would be less expensive and a lot more fun than hiring someone else to grind the stumps. I was amazed to see how deep and wide the roots grow to support the trees. One of the stumps had roots so deep that I would not budge, no matter how much digging, pulling, and pushing I did. To this day, it remains in my yard as a memorial.

Allowing a tree to grow in a dangerous place can create costly consequences and a big mess to clean up. Likewise, our undisciplined eyes and flesh can get us into a lot of trouble and create unnecessary burdens for ourselves and others.

We are all born innocent but into a sinful world. As children, when we know right from wrong and choose wrong, we eat our first seed of pride. Once that seed is allowed to germinate within our spirit, it begins to solidify through a network of iniquitous roots like unforgiveness, bitterness, fear, anger, and offenses of every kind. Most of us are unaware of this cancerous phenomenon because it’s easier to blame others for the way we feel inside. Over a lifetime, this root system often grows very deep. That is why letting go of pride is so hard – because it requires us to die to everything that makes us feel secure.

Just let go. Growing up in a Spirit-filled home and church, I grew to love the Lord at a very early age. Many of you reading this may be the same. We know the Lord’s voice and identify with humility. However, in my pride, I carried a backpack full of bricks that represented the things about which I worried. Sadly, I was blind to the unnecessary burden I carried until the Lord revealed the answer to my freedom through a sermon by Jentezen Franklin. Here is an excerpt from his message, entitled How Do You Get Free?

To summarize, the three types of spirits that seek to steal, kill and destroy are tormenting sprits (which hinder), unclean spirits (which bind through forms of addiction), and evil spirits (which drive evil behavior). To overcome these spiritual forces, the book of James instructs us to submit to God and resist the devil (James 4:7). Pastor Franklin paints a roadmap to freedom by applying our faith in action through these four steps: Trace it, face it, erase it, and replace it.

Pride can be a silent killer, and the spirit operating behind it kept trying to choke out the joy of my salvation and limit my potential for making a difference here and in heaven. For me, that pride manifested itself through fear. Our enemy, the father of lies (Jn 8:44), tried to convince me that fear and worry were two different things, and it was only responsible of me to worry. It’s the same lie that he tells so many people. The lie goes something like this: “If you don’t have something to worry about, something bad will happen to you or a loved one.” Pride wants to keep us paralyzed, numbing us to the power of the Holy Spirit who resides within us through Christ. It wasn’t until I wholeheartedly pursued fearlessness that the Lord revealed to me that fear is rooted in pride. The Holy Spirit had been preparing me for this battle in so many ways, especially with the inspiration of creating a secret meeting place with the Lord. So, as soon as I received the revelation, I ran to my quiet place and got low before the Lord.

I began by worshiping and adoring Him, telling Him how wonderful He is and will always be. I confessed and repented of everything that would hinder me from entering into His presence. I honored and thanked Him for His forgiveness. Then, I prayed for others. That is a key that positions us to receive the favor of the Lord (Prov. 11:25). Then, I prayed for myself. I prayed something like this: “Heavenly Father, I’m not leaving here until you take this fear and pride from me…” I remember Him saying “Just let it go.” As my spirit and flesh battled it out in the darkness, I saw a great dragon with the body of a serpent barging in, uninvited, and beginning to circle. I began speaking every scripture I knew. The spiritual warfare was so intense that I had to hide my face, but I didn’t quit pressing into the Lord because I knew my breakthrough was close. Still, the enemy was unrelenting. It felt like a great storm was all around me. I remember hearing the enemy say that I would die without my fear. Immediately I thought, “Since when does the enemy care about me?” I realized he was trying to defeat me with fear, so I laughed as I responded, “You’re right. I will die.” In that moment, I felt prepared for my wife to find my dead body in that room. I pressed into the Holy Spirit, deliberately surrendering my fear and pride. It felt like approaching the apex of a rollercoaster, right before the drop. I felt the storm around me intensify and the dragon peering at me from behind, with hate in his eyes. As I reached a cliff’s edge of what felt like a bottomless chasm, I was faced with the choice of releasing the heavy bag of bricks I carried or sinking into the abyss with them. So, I just let go.

Everything around me became quiet and calm. I was filled with an overwhelming sense of peace and oneness with the Father. There was no pain – only power. The weight lifted immediately, and I realized I never had anything to fear. For the first time, I felt a righteous anger towards the enemy. I cried out to God and repented for tolerating that spirit for so long. Then, the Lord allowed me to see a physical manifestation of the destructive power of pride. It looked like a living storm, full of terror and chaos, seeking to kill everything and everyone. It had no mercy and sought to destroy everything God had created since the beginning of the world. The only reason that it was not completely free to wreak havoc was that the Lord, by the power of His Holy Spirit and working in and through the body of Christ, kept it restrained (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7).

Dying is only hard the first time. Make no mistake, pride is the source of depression, anxiety, offense, and every other sin that separates us from God and others. Trying to eliminate the root of pride in our own ability can be a painful process because it’s like pushing, pulling, and digging around an immovable tree stump. It only irritates the problem, sometimes causing it to sink deeper. However, when we ask the Holy Spirit to purge our hearts and pour out His anointing upon us, the root of pride shrivels up and dies, making it easy to erase and replace. I can tell you from personal experience that dying to pride is only hard the first time. When we make it a daily surrender, we don’t allow the seeds of pride to germinate and take root in our lives. Even still, pulling up a sapling is much easier than unearthing a tree. Remember, surrender is only hard while we wrestle with the idea. Once we make the decision, the breakthrough is instantaneous. What do you have to lose? For me, it was the weight of a heavy burden I was never meant to carry. So, make a decision and let today be the first day of the best of your life.

Here are seven places in scripture where God reiterates how He feels about pride.