Pride is being more concerned about what others think of me than what God knows me to be. Pride can manifest itself through shyness as well as through arrogance. Pride deals in generalities; humility deals in specifics.
When you find yourself beginning to talk in generalities about what God is doing in your life, or you are content to confess sin generally rather than specifically, you can be certain that pride is re-establishing a foothold in your life.
Keep yourself accountable to others for what God is doing in your life. Be open. Be transparent. Be honest. Be specific. Pride covers up; humility confesses.
The first tendency people have when they begin to back up on the work of God in revival is to cover up their true spiritual condition with a false cloak of spirituality. They say the right things, they do the right things, but they have ceased to be right.
Rather than being honest and transparent about their condition, they choose to "save face" by pretending to be revived when they are not. Spiritual accountability to others will help to prevent pride from settling into the revived heart.
Insight from the Word:
Proverbs 13:10 "By pride comes nothing but strife."
Proverbs 16:18,19 "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud."
Proverbs 21:4 "Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin."
Daniel 4:37 "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble."
Proverbs 13:10 "By pride comes nothing but strife."
Proverbs 16:18,19 "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud."
Proverbs 21:4 "Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin."
Daniel 4:37 "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble."
Making It Personal
• Have I confessed to God the specific sins I have been guilty of committing in the past 24 hours?
• Is there any need or sin in my life that I have refused to admit to God or to others?
• Am I leaving a better impression of myself with others than is honestly true?
• Is there any area of pride, resistance, or self-sufficiency in my life that could be causing God to resist me?
© Life Action Ministries: Revival Review--Keys to Continued Revival
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