To the Knee I Go

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5

I’ve been exploring the concept that the root of every sin is based in our distrust of God. I’ve come to believe there are two basic reasons which keep us from giving all of ourselves to God; fear and pride. We’ve already looked at fear in the last post. At the very core, we’re afraid we can’t trust God to come through for us as He’s promised.

Pride is the other outward sign of our distrust in God. Pride is when we tell God we know better than He does. We are prideful when we distrust God’s sovereignty.

God lays down only a few “rules” for humans like:

"And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." Genesis 2:16-17

These rules give us the boundaries of abundant life. God knows exactly what boundaries humans need because He knows what’s best. Why? He’s sovereign; perfect in righteousness and wholly just with ultimately authority.

We know pride is at the core of our sin when we start saying things like, “Hey wait a minute! I don’t agree with that rule. God Himself is going to have to prove that one to me before I believe it.” Or “That one is only meant for those super “Jesus freaks”, not for the normal people.” We may find ourselves making justifications, “Why, that was surely only meant for the culture thousands of years ago. That will never work in today’s society.” Or maybe, “God wants me to be happy, right? This makes me happy!”

Pride causes us to go against the will of God even when we know His will. Pride may also make us neglect to seek His will in case His will may go against what we really want to do. Pride keeps us from the abundant life when we say things like, “I like my life just the way it is, Lord. Don’t go messing around with it.”

It’s a good thing God knows us so well because He has the perfect antidotes to our sin. Just like the antidote for fear is perfect love, I believe the antidote for pride is perfect humility. Humility happens when we learn the hard way God is more than a genie in a bottle meant for our own happiness. I call it the “loving swap on the back side.” It happens when God allows us to take a little fall and we fall into His loving arms.

When we get the proverbial rug pulled out from under us, try going to a knee rather than shaking a fist. You may be surprised at what you’ll find. From my experience, I can tell you - you will find MORE on your knee…