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The Challenge of Pride

Posted on August 23, 2009 | Filed Under Sunday Night Updates, West Rome, What I'm learning, XL 

We learned a lot this morning in our study of King Solomon. We all know that Solomon was the wisest man in the Bible. We’ve heard how God gave him the opportunity to ask for anything in the world and he asked for wisdom to lead God’s people well. Yeah, that’s what I would have asked for…! HA! I must say, I think we all learned something about ourselves by seeing Solomon’s choice that day. However, the one thing we really learned this morning is that “it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.” See, Solomon started strong and made some great decisions up front. But, at the end of life, he’s writing books like Ecclesiastes where we learn that everything seemed meaningless to him. What was it that took Solomon from having everything that we could all want or dream of, to sitting on his porch as an old man talking about how meaningless life was. Here are the four things we saw today that took Solomon down the wrong road:

1. He began to forget where all the blessings came from.
I think this is where the “slow fade” toward pride began in Solomon’s life. He began to think that some of the great things that God had done for him were actually his fault. We must be very careful to remember the blessings of God.

2. He decided he could handle things on his own.
When he started marrying the daughters of the Kings of rival nations, he was going directly against the command of God. At first, it’s a slow fade. Then, we are going directly against God’s direction for our lives. Be careful!!!

3. He surrounded himself with people that did not support his love for his God.
God specifically told him that, if he married these foreign women, they would turn Solomon’s heart against God. And, that’s exactly what they did. Learn from this. You cannot surround yourself with people that do not support you, and expect to grow toward Christ. They WILL have an affect on you.

4. He actually began to worship other Gods.
Anytime we allow the slow fade toward pride in our lives, if not stopped, it ALWAYS ends up with us worshiping something other than our God.

I was challenged this week that the story of Solomon reminds me of a lot of men in our churches today. We begin to think the good things we have accomplished in our lives have something to do with us. We move from there to trying to handle our lives on our own, and in our own way. Then, we find ourselves spending most of our time with people that WILL influence us against God. And, then, finally, we end up worshiping things (cars, houses, jobs, money) other than God.

Where are you on this scale? Are you fading slowly? Stop it now. Are you already worshiping things other than God? Repent today, and get back on track. You don’t want to end up like Solomon, looking back on a life that ended up meaningless. REMEMBER, it’s not how you start, but how you finish!

Have a great week.

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