Pride Is Not a Good Reason

Roy Hession tells a second lesson God taught him in the early days of his Christian life. He had begun attending fellowship meetings regularly, and one day the leader of the gathering invited him to become the secretary of the group. He was thrilled and immediately said yes.

"In the days that followed I felt increasingly uneasy, because the reason I had accepted so readily was pride," he wrote in My Calvary Road. "I got no peace until I had written to one of the leaders to say that, for reasons I did not care to go into in a letter, I could not go forward with the proposal and must withdraw."

The older Christian, a godly man of deep experience, came to see him and asked why he refused. Roy had to tell him, and then added, "If I can't do this without pride, then obviously I must not do it."

"Then the job will not be done," the man responded, "at least not by you. If you continue on that basis, there is nothing that you will be able to do for the Lord. And that is exactly what the devil intends, and the work of the Lord to that degree will be halted. That is why Satan provoked you to pride in the first place.

"The answer is," he continued, "to do it nonetheless - but without pride."

Whenever the devil tempted him to pride, he was to simply confess to Jesus and trust Jesus to forgive any thoughts that displeased Him. "But don't let Satan deter you from doing what God calls you to do."

Thank You, Lord, for giving us grace to live in victorious freedom.

"If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).