The Overwhelming Importance of Humility and not Excessive Pride in the Life of a Believer!

10 Sep 2026 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today’s Scrip-Bit   10 September 2026   Proverbs 16:18.

Proverbs 16:18.        ‘Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall (stumbling).

And then it was Thursday, our penultimate day of the work week; a beautiful sunshiny, windy day, with temps in the mid-twenties, almost in the middle of September. Now, I’m not sure if that’s a usual occurrence, but we’ll surely take it and say thanks to climate change, and/or the Lord for it! (smile)

And today we’ll talk about prideful boasting, one of the things in human beings that the Lord most thoroughly detests. And there are many scriptures that attest to that sentiment. So let’s look at a few nuh. Beginning with this one from Cousin Sol in Proverbs, that gets right to the heart of the matter. ‘Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall (stumbling). Better it is to be of humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil (plunder) with the proud.’ (Prov. 16:18-19) Words of absolute wisdom my brethren!

Then there’s Jeremiah, where he writes on the Lord’s behalf. ‘Thus saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise LOVING-KINDNESS, judgement (justice), and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.’ (Jer. 9:23-24)  Yes friends, the Lord doesn’t take kindly to boasting about one’s earthly accomplishments or achievements.

And the scholars explain. ‘Having lamented the folly of his faithless people, Jeremiah turns their attention to the true source of wisdom – the Lord himself (9:23-10:25) True wisdom was to be found in the consistent following of the three central qualities of spiritual life: LOVING-KINDNESS (the exercise of true covenant loyalty; like that between Bruh David and Jonathan, King Saul’s son), judgement (the consistent application of true justice for all), and righteousness (the maintenance of what was right in the sight of the Lord in all of life).’

That’s why Bruh Paul warns us in Romans: ‘For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God had dealt to every man the measure of faith.’ (Rom. 12:3) Then he goes on to talk about properly using the different gifts God has given us (vs. 4-8)

And per the scholars to those verses: ‘The righteousness of God will cause the believer to conduct himself in humility in the local church (vs. 3-8). Paul meets two dangers that the individual faced in the exercise of his spiritual gifts. He might overestimate himself and try to exercise a gift God never gave him. Or he might underestimate himself and fail to exercise the gift God has given to him. Paul shows that God has given each believer specific gifts to enable him to do what God wants him to do. No one is excluded.’

And James, Jesus’ brother, lays it on thick for us in his epistle, where he questions. ‘Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to (yearns) to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth more grace unto the humble.’ (James 4:5-6)

In that 4th verse it seems James was alluding to the chapter in Genesis, where it says: ‘And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination (intent) of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (all the day long). (Gen. 6:5) Then the Lord regretted making man and decided to destroy it all. ‘But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.’ (Gen. 6:8) That’s because Noah was humble and not proud like the rest of mankind. And the Lord is still giving more grace to the humble today than the proud or boastful.

And James goes on to talk further about the boasting problem. ‘Go to now (come now), ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain (make a profit): whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice (boast) in your boasting (arrogance): all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.’ (James 4:13-17)

That says it all my people! Boasting, or not taking the Lord’s will into consideration is wrong. And If we know what’s right and don’t do it, then to us it’s sinful. And we’ll close with a word from Peter, where, in talking about subjecting ourselves to each other, he declares: ‘Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.’ (1 Pet. 5:5) Now, it could not get any clearer than that my people. (smile) 

And having refreshed our memories with those potent scriptures on boasting and humility, let’s go home declaring our undeserved Thursday Blessings, which the Lord has so generously bestowed on us to do His earthly work. As one strong and sincere voice: ‘I declare that I am blessed with God’s supernatural wisdom and receive clear direction for my life! I declare today that I am blessed with creativity, courage, talent and abundance! I am blessed with a strong will, self-control and self-discipline! 

I am blessed with a great family, good friends, good health, faith, favour and fulfillment! I am blessed with success, supernatural strength, promotion and divine protection! I am blessed with a compassionate heart and a positive outlook on life! I declare that any curse or negative word that’s ever been spoken over me is broken right now in the name of Jesus! I declare that everything I put my hands to, will prosper and succeed! I declare it today and every day! Amen!’ 

And having made that declaration, it now behooves us to go out and use those blessings to help others, just as generously as the Lord bestowed them on us, so that they too can come to know and LOVE Him like we do! Much LOVE!

…why boast and be detested by God…when you can be humble and receive oodles of grace…

Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien 

Today’s Scrip-Bit   6 May 2023 Matthew 28:19a.

06 May 2023 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Matthew 28:19a.       Go ye therefore and teach (make disciples of) all nations,

Well, at long last a sunny day without any foreboding clouds! Glory be my people! And there couldn’t be a better day for it than this lazy-day Saturday which is all consumed with the crowning of King Charles and Queen Camilla. Brother, that will be fodder for the news mills and social media for weeks to come. Especially since they’ve now become a somewhat dysfunctional family through the public spectacle that’s being brought on by Andrew’s and Harry’s antics. 

Now that’s not totally true, for like any other family, they’ve always had problems, remember the days of Princess Margaret, who flouted a lot of the royal traditions. But I guess back then, the news media was not as nasty, vituperative and greedy as they are now, neither were there the many current outlets of social media. Everybody will have their own take on the subject, and every real or imagined scandal will be dragged back into the public’s eye, though very few will ever know the true reality of the situation. 

And what we all fail to realize is that they are people, and people don’t always get along, although they might have close ties together. They’re no different to any other dysfunctional family in our society, though they hold a loftier position than most, but that doesn’t make them immune to the problems that befall all of us. And not everybody can keep a stiff upper lip and strong backbone for as long as the late Queen did. And though we expect the Royal Family to meet a higher standard than ordinary families, the saying, you make the children but not their minds, goes for them as well as for all of us. 

Times change and so do people. And we’ve become such full-fledged hypocrites, that we just LOVE to criticize others, when we’re doing the same thing, or even worse. Yes, we’ve become a weak, over-critical, permissive, compassion-less, entitled, drama -filled society. And unfortunately, it will only get worse, unless and until we supposed believers in Christ Jesus, develop some kind of unity and stand up and fight the evil and nastiness that’s overwhelming our world. 

Ah friends, I know that seems like a huge and somewhat impossible task, but we know that with Jesus in our corner, ALL things are possible. And furthermore, it wouldn’t have been this bad if we had come together earlier and stood up as one and fought the enemy mano-a-mano, instead of sitting on our fat fannies through, fear, indifference or whatever caused our lack of involvement. Now, though the task has become more difficult, it’s still not too late to begin doing something worthwhile. 

But we have to begin RIGHT NOW! We can’t put off our serious involvement in Christ’s LOVE Revolution any longer. And the first and possibly most important move is becoming a unified, rather than divided church. For the enemy will just keep dividing and conquering us, if we don’t unify and stay unified. Whatever happened to Jesus’ promise that upon the rock, the body of believers, He would build His church eh? 

When Jesus asked the disciples: ‘But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. and I say unto thee, That thou art Peter (a stone), and upon this rock, (large rock) I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’ (Matt. 16:15-18) 

Now, contrary to popular opinion, Jesus didn’t mean that He was going to build His church on Peter, but on all the disciples, the work and doctrine that they would go out and make known to the world. And this is corroborated by the fact that Jesus said the same thing to them all later on when teaching them how to deal with a trespassing brother. ‘Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’ (Matt. 18:18) 

Oh my fellow believers, Jesus is depending on us to build the church. He is the rock or solid foundation on which we are to build. It’s all based on Peter’s confession, that Jesus is indeed ‘the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And His promise that the ‘gates of hell shall not prevail against it,’ ensures us that death and evil will not permanently overpower the Church. But to accomplish His wish, means we have to go out and continue what the disciples begun; to spread His word, His doctrine, His wonderful philosophy. In other words, carry out the Great Commission which He assigned to His church, to His followers right down through the ages, until whatever time He returns. 

And we all know what the Great Commission is, but just to refresh our memory, (smile) let’s proclaim it again nuh. Jesus instructs the disciples. ‘All power (authority) is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach (make disciples of) all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.’ (Matt. 28:18-20) 

And it’s obvious that as the body of Christ, His church, we have sadly fallen down on carrying out that commission, otherwise the world would not be in the sad and sorry, evil and ungodly state its currently in. And we’ll close today with a couple of definitions and explanations by the scholars of the church and the Great Commission. As per the church, they say: ‘The word church is a translation of the Greek word ekklesia, meaning “called out” or “assembly.” In the New Testament it usually refers to a local group of Christians. 

In this sense a church is an assembly of baptized believers under the discipline of the Word of God. They are organized to carry out the Great Commission, the administration of New Testament ordinances, and the exercise of spiritual gifts. When a group of Christians today follows this example, it is a church in the biblical sense of the word. In the New Testament, Christians assembled as churches for fellowship, instruction, and worship, and to carry out the Great Commission. Every Christian should follow the example of New Testament believers by identifying with a local church, and getting involved in its ministry.’  That tells us we can’t be true believers unless we are associated with a local church and are involved in its ministry. 

And as per the Great Commission, the scholars say: ‘The controlling purpose of the local church is to make disciples of all kinds of people. Those who are evangelized and converted should then be baptized, attesting to their identification with Christ and the local body of believers. The final phase of the Great Commission is to train disciples in Christian knowledge and for effective service. A church cannot choose one aspect of its responsibility and neglect the others. The Great Commission is a simple command with three steps – evangelism, baptism, and education. Every Christian should determine that his ministry for Christ in the church upholds God’s objective for that institution.’ 

And now that we are more enlightened as to the purpose of the church and the Great Commission, (smile)  let’s spend some time today pondering if we, and the local church we belong to are indeed following the ideals noted above. And if not, let’s do our best to bring them into line. Much LOVE!

…each chain is as strong as its weakest link…the same goes for Christ’s church… 

 Hear our podcast at https://open.spotify.com/show/3aVfqIC1CqwGybISs9dZ