I really had to wrestle with the whole area of God breaking our pride. He has had to deal with me so much in this area and I know it is very real. The song “Beautifully Broken” as sung by Keith Hawson speaks very beautifully to this point. As I prayed I asked the Lord to show me the difference between having our pride broken and being proud of our work. I kept thinking of the early craftsmen who were so proud of each thing they made something, that they initialed their work. Compared to many of the slip-shod craftsmen of today. Did God not want us to have pride in out work, be proud of our children, proud of a job well done? I really wanted some answers to this and by the end of the week He really have me some answers that were at least helpful to me.
As I looked at scriptures talking about Pride there were 50 negative verses compared with 5 positive verses. So much talking about the evils of pride. Such as Proverbs 16:18, Isaiah 2:11, Isaiah 25:11, Amos 6:8, Mark 7:22, II Chronicles 32:26, James 4:6. An then verses using the work Proud. There were 38 negative with only 4 positive. And verses talking about humbling us such as Deut. 8:16-18, Micah 6:8, and Matthew 23:12. The answer came to me in looking at the meaning of the word Pride and Proud in the dictionary. There were 4 definitions for pride. The first one was: Self-respected . And the fourth one was: conceit, arrogance, disdain. I began to get excited as there was a difference with the word itself. The same was true with proud. The first definition was: feeling pleasurable satisfaction. And the fourth definition was: having excessive self-esteem, haughty, arrogant.
The fourth definition gave examples of the negative things God was talking about and wanting to break in us. The first explanation brought to light that there is still good in pride. Then I began to think that perhaps in the Greek different forms of the word pride were used in different situations. I was really excited when I discovered the following.
I found that in Mark 7:22 the word translated as pride was actually in the Greek “haughtiness”. Wow that was great. Then in II Corinthians 7:4 the word pride was used in a positive way. “I have great pride in you”. That was a different Greek word meaning “in respect of you”. That really cleared some thinking in my mind. That there are good sides of pride that God would have in my life but the arrogance and haughtiness and not giving God the credit were the things He wanted broken.
The Greek meanings of the words Humility and Gentleness were also very interesting. Greek word for Humility- Not the making of one’s self small when he is really great, but thinking little of one’s self, because this is in a sense the right estimate for any human being, however great. The word for Gentleness says: Is founded upon this same idea and goes beyond it. It is the attitude of mind and behavior which, arising from humility, disposes one to receive with gentleness and meekness whatever may come to him from others or from God.
There things are very helpful to me in clearing up this matter and I hope a little helpful to you.
Jeremiah 9:23 tells us where not to get our self respect….