4 Simple Steps to Breaking the Spirit of Pride In Your Life

Let me ask you a very important question. Do you struggle with breaking the spirit of pride in your personal life and daily “Christian” walk? In all honesty, when you search your hearts you can acknowledge ALL have pride issues of one form or another. The reality, however, simply stated is that ALL carry the sin of pride. Now whether we admit our pride openly is another story.

Pride in the Bible is clear on the subject and dealing with pride is necessary for you to have viable relationships with people AND with God. So how do you break the spirit of pride?

I almost titled this post “Breaking the Spirit of Pride in Four Easy Steps.” Ha! That would have been a lie. There is absolutely nothing easy about breaking the spirit of pride. But it is an absolute must if we are to have a healthy and complete relationship with God and others.

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What is Pride in the Bible?

Merriam-Webster defines pride as “a feeling that you are more important or better than other people.” You may not even realize we’re being prideful, but if you look at the way you deal with other people or the way you deal with God, you might be surprised.

God has very strong things to say about pride, as we can see from the book of Proverbs:

Pride In The Bible verses

To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. Proverbs 8:13

The LORD detests all the pride of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished. Proverbs 16:5

When it comes to breaking the spirit of pride there are some pretty severe consequences:

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18

Haughty eyes and a proud heart-the unplowed field of the wicked-produce sin. Proverbs 21:4

Do you see a person as wise in their own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for them. Proverbs 26:12

Verses About Pride In The Bible (Examples Of Pride)

• Samson (Judges 13-16) Samson was called by God to deliver the Israelites from the Philistines. He was blessed with great strength but used his strength and status to fraternize with the Philistines; womanize, and just plain do what he wanted with no regard for God’s law, He ended up being more useful to God in his death than in His life.

What Samson’s Pride in the Bible Means for You

Pride tells you that “certain things won’t happen to you”. Samson carried this attitude. He thought he was above God’s law. Pride tells you this same thing: that you are above God’s law. You need to beware when you begin justifying and not obeying something God tells you to do.

• Peter (Matthew 26:33-35) Peter is known for having a big mouth and putting his foot in it a lot. He often says things on a whim and out of pride. In this example, he tells Jesus that he would never fall away from Him even if others fall away. But when others abandoned Jesus at his trial, Peter also abandoned Him.

What Peter’s pride in the Bible means for you

Pride makes you think that you will always do the right thing. There is a big difference between thinking you will always do the right thing and having the wisdom to know that you are always capable of doing the wrong thing and then choosing to do the right thing.

• The Pharisees (Matthew 23) In this passage, Jesus condemns the Pharisees for saying one thing and doing another and doing everything they do just for how it looks to other people. The Pharisees loved the attention and the respect they received for their position, but they had no desire to actually, genuinely help other people or love God. If we’re not careful we can be called Modern-Day Pharisees full of pride too.

What Pharisees’ Pride In the Bible Means For You

Acting like you are above others is a hallmark of pride. When you are obeying God’s commandments for anything other than pleasing God or genuinely loving other people, you are acting out of pride like the pharisee.

How Does God Break Pride?

There are two choices when it comes to ridding yourself of pride: God can break your pride or you can do it yourself. Samson remained prideful despite knowing God’s law and knowing that he was set apart for a special purpose: God had to break him in the end.

Peter was one of Jesus’ closest friends, but he did not do anything about his pride. Jesus had to break it. It broke Peter’s heart, but Peter used that as a valuable lesson and became the cornerstone of the church.

As far as we know, the Pharisees never broke their pride in their lifetimes, and they had to face the judgment of the living God.

Verses About Pride

“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Hebrews 10:31

“But He gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves therefore to God…” James 4:6-7

Your pride will be broken one way or another. When you die, you will stand before God in judgment, and if you hold onto your pride until the end, you will be judged for that.

God can only draw near to you if you have a humble heart, so pride can keep you from God. And if you are a Christian, God will break your pride by disciplining you as children because He loves you.

This is heavy stuff. But y’all: this is a very serious subject. Your pride can break you or you can break it.

4 Steps To Breaking The Spirit Of Pride Biblically

John Piper: Breaking Down Pride

It’s a hard journey to get rid of our pride Biblically, but it’s worth it, and you will find an intimacy with God that you have never experienced before. I guarantee you that you will experience God as you never have before the more you break the spirit of pride.

1. Acknowledge The Problem

Any counselor will tell you that the first step in overcoming a problem is acknowledging that there is a problem. If you are human, it is more than likely you struggle with pride. Take an honest look at yourself and your attitude. Ask God to show you where pride is causing problems. Psalm 139:23-24

Pride can look like what you typically think of when it comes to pride: arrogance, bragging, selfishness, one-upping others, not listening to others or God, etc.

But it can also come across in ways you wouldn’t expect: sarcasm, not being able to move on from mistakes, dwelling on the past, putting others down, complaining, low self-esteem, wanting to be in control of everything, etc.

2. Deliberately Make Choices That Will Hurt Your Pride

After you acknowledge that you have a problem with pride, it’s time to make choices that hurt your pride. As you grow in your relationship with God and the more you choose against pride, the more sensitive to it you will become. 

The next time you are faced with a choice of what to say or do, examine your motives: are you choosing to say or do the thing that will protect yourself? Or are you doing or saying the thing that will help the other person and glorify God?

If you find yourself making the choice that will protect yourself, instead make a conscious effort and choice to do the opposite–deliberately choose what will help that person and glorify God. The more you choose to help other people and glorify God and not be selfish, the easier those choices will become.

For example, say I’m mad at my husband. When I see him, I can choose to act mad and be mean back to protect my pride, or I can choose to do what God tells me to do and approach him in love.

I can choose to talk to him lovingly and work things out or I can satisfy my emotions and march around the house in silence like I’m a mime or something (but a mean one). The best choice would be to choose the path of humility and talk things out with my husband.

3. Guard Your Heart Against Pride

Once you begin making choices that hurt your pride, you need to continually practice this and make choices that will continue hurting your pride. Putting this into continual practice will guard your heart against pride and draw you near to God James 4:8

Just like taking care of our bodies, taking care of our spiritual side requires consistency in walking with God. You MUST stay in the Word every day and keep your mind on God and His heart through prayer, Christian fellowship, and sharing Christ with others.

4. Pray to Overcome Pride

One of the ways you learn about God’s heart is through prayer. There is no magic formula for saying a prayer. God hears an honest plea. Just be open with God and talk to Him about anything and everything. Be honest with Him. 

Here is an example of prayer for overcoming pride to get you started:

“Dear Lord,

I praise you because you are the God of the universe. You created everything we see and everything we don’t. I praise you because you are God and I am not. You have all wisdom and knowledge.

No one can teach you or counsel you or know better than you. Thank you for being close to me. Thank you for being patient with me and kind to me. Thank you for Jesus dying on the cross for my sins.

God, I confess to you that I have had a prideful attitude. I ask for your forgiveness. Please give me the strength I need to turn away from my pride and grow closer to you. You are my God and the King of my heart.

Please give me the strength I need to turn away from making prideful and selfish decisions. Please also search for me and know me and make known to me any sin in my heart that I’m not aware of.

Thank you, God, for teaching me and growing me as you see fit. You are so wise. Thank you for loving me and knowing me better than I know myself. Please help me to break the sin of pride. In Jesus’ Name, I pray, Amen.”

Your Turn

Breaking the spirit of pride is not easy, but it is so worth it. It is incredibly hard because your pride does not want to be broken, and you don’t want it broken. But breaking pride is the thing that will bring you closer to God. you cannot come near Him if you can’t learn from Him or listen to Him. He will come near to you as you draw near to Him (James 4:8)

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