I STRUGGLE WITH PRIDE! There, I said it! Many of us would like to think of ourselves as humble individuals. But the more you walk with Jesus the more He shows you the areas you need to grow in. You might be surprised to know that there are many ways that pride can creep into our lives and I want to caution us all to be on guard against these. I think it’s safe to say that God HATES pride because it reminds Him of the original sin in heaven when Lucifer sinned and became Satan (Eze. 28:12-15; Isa. 14:12-15; Rev. 12:1-3). The following is a checklist of 15 indicators as to how pride can manifest itself in our lives. As you read this I encourage you to take an honest assessment as to whether these actions or mentalities are consistently manifested in your life. Here we go!

#1 – Assuming you already know something when someone is teaching

When you immediately tune someone out who starts teaching you something that you may be somewhat familiar with, that is an example of pride. It is the assumption that you know everything about the subject being communicated and that this person, whom you see as inferior in knowledge to you, cannot teach you something new.

#2 – Seeing yourself as too good to perform certain tasks

When someone asks you to do something and your immediate thought is, “I, out of all people, shouldn’t have to do that. That task is for someone else.” That is a sign of pride that we should consider dealing with. Next time this thought arises ask yourself,

If Jesus was willing to leave heaven and come to earth for me, then who am I to say I am too good to do what someone asks me to do?

#3 – Being too proud to ask for help

There is something to be said for independence. However, there are times in life when we must all admit that something is beyond our capacity and that we need help. The unwillingness to recognize our own shortcomings and need for help is a sign of pride.

#4 – Feeling the Need to Consistently Teach People Things

Have you ever been in a group where someone feels the needs to dominate the conversation and seemingly spill everything they know without giving other people the opportunity to share? Sometimes this can be a sign of pride because when a person knows something that they know most other people don’t know much about, it creates a sense of pride within them.

#5 – Talking about Yourself a Lot

When you talk a lot about your accomplishments, your education, title, position, and/or financial status, that is a sign of pride. The Bible says, “Be quick to listen and slow to speak…” (James 1:19). When we talk about ourselves a lot it reveals that we have not yet learned how to come up out of ourselves and focus on the interests of others (Phil. 2:3).

#6 – Thinking You are Better Than Others Who are Different or Less Fortunate

This one is subtle because a person can appear to be humble and caring on the outside. However, in their minds they secretly think they are better than other people who may have different backgrounds, cultures or experiences than they do.

#7 – When You Disregard the advice of others

This has its root in thinking you have all the answers to life and you somehow don’t need or see the value in other people’s perspectives. It carries the idea that you believe you can be successful and accomplish your goals without the counsel of others.

#8 – When You are Consistently Critical

This is when we tend to put others down often because there is a deep-seated need for us to feel better about ourselves. People who are critical are that way because they secretly see themselves as exempt from the very same things they criticize others. This is pride.

#9 – Consistent need for Attention and Affirmation

When someone constantly needs to be the center of attention in public or secretly craves consistent affirmation for their accomplishments, looks, personality, serving, intelligence, and/or physique, this is a sign of pride.

#10 – Unable to receive constructive criticism

When a person struggles to allow other people to speak into their lives and provide helpful feedback it is a sign of pride because they are too blinded by their own pride to see the value in what someone is sharing with them and how it can help make them a better person.

#11 – Overly obsessed with their physical appearance

Certainly you should take care of yourself and exercise. But when a person is constantly obsessed with how they look and they like to flaunt their figure/physique in front of others with the hopes that people will notice and gawk at them, this is vanity which is yet another form of pride.

#12 – Unwilling to submit to authority

When a person is unwilling to submit to authority at work, church, at home or in any other relationship it is because deep within the person they believe they could make better decisions than the person God has placed over them. So, they submit outwardly but inwardly they struggle to accept the subordinate position they are in.

#13 – Ignoring people’s attempt to communicate with you

Ooowee! Yep, when you consistently blow people off who text or email you, you are essentially minimizing the importance of this person and their communication and saying to yourself that they are not important enough to invest your precious time into. We all get busy but acknowledging a person’s attempt to connect sends the message of importance to the other person.

#14 – Justifying our Sin instead of admitting it

When someone graciously points out a sin issue in your life and you get defensive and even start to justify it that is a dangerous place to be because if they’re using scripture to support then you are essentially saying that you know better than God.

#15 – Name-dropping

When you consistently associate yourself with people who have prominent positions and publicly drop it in conversations in hopes that people will think you are equally as important as the people you associate yourself with, this is a very subtle form of pride.

SUMMARY

Whew! So, as you can see pride is something that can creep into your life in various subtle ways. A great story in the Bible to study about pride is about a man named King Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26. I encourage you read/study it in its entirety. Once again, I encourage you to check your heart against this list and ask God to help you identify some ways that you struggle with pride and how you can exhibit more humility in your life.