humility

Pride’s Prison

Dr. Mike 2026 , , , ,

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”  1 John 2:15-17

The enticement of the world is strong. We are all encamped in its arms. We may believe we are independent. We stand on our own two feet. That no one influences us. We make our own beds. We think.

Yet, over time, slowly, within each day, the cultural influence sneaks in. When we are young, we have little awareness of the power of our desires. If it feels good, we do it. If we want something, we go after it. If it makes us exalt ourselves, we get it.

But as the years go by, hopefully one learns before the floor crashes. Not everything we desire is good for us. Our feelings may be misplaced. All the toys, status, fame, and fortune available to us does not buy us real love, joy, and peace. What we thought would give us the freedom to experience life to the fullest, didn’t. Instead it has led us into a prison of emptiness.

The pride of placing oneself the center of the universe has caused many downfalls. We initially see this outcome in Genesis 3 with Eve grasping for the forbidden fruit. Compare this event with Jesus in Luke 4. Under a similar temptation, HE placed God in the center of HIS world and didn’t allow the enemy to win.

The pride of self-importance only leads to a prison of spiritless outcomes. When pride elevates us ahead of God, watch out. We have lost our way. When we take all the credit for our accomplishments, look out. We are walking into solitary confinement. A place where we get a nasty taste of ourselves. Pride is the downfall of many.

Over the years, I have either seen or experienced how pride locks up their victims. For example:

Pride prevents one from having a deep relationship with others.

Pride fails to forgive others and turns the event into a life-long road of bitterness.

Pride fails to forgive oneself causes one to live like a victim without hope.

Pride pushes help away until one lives an isolated life without friends or family.

Pride causes one to sacrifice their health for the attainment of a fleeting moment.

Pride isolates one to their hurt.

Pride makes one miss out on the virtue of humility and its fruit.

Pride’s short-term win leads to long-term failure.

Pride destroys friendships.

Pride leads to poor decisions which may destroy one’s life work.

Pride blinds oneself from the need of a Savior.


The list is endless. Each of us lives with pride. The problem is when it raises its ugly head to blind us from reality. How do we deal with it?

When one begins to live under God’s domain, one learns how to live with a servant’s heart. Humility becomes the robe to cover our pride. Yes, we appreciate pride when the moment is right. But we also know pride without God’s Spirit leading causes damage. As we surrendered our kingdom to Lord Jesus, we are being trained to live like HIM. This means placing Father-Son-Spirit the center of our life. When one does, one learns to share in the Triune God’s life. Pride then doesn’t lead to a prison sentence, but a pathway of humility with freedom for self and others.

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Faith-Integrator, Encourager, Scribbler

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Greed Trap

Dr. Mike Kingdom Paradigms ,

Psalm 10:3

For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord.

Somewhere I wrote a blog how marriage, ballroom dancing, and day trading has taught me more about God than all the other activities combined. When it comes to greed, trading the future markets with its quick turns and higher volatility easily brings out the best and worst of one’s character traits. As many a book records, two of the strongest emotions for day traders to manage are greed and fear.

Most traders eventually over time and practice learn to understand the markets, the setups, and the indicators they choose to use. Yet annually over 94% of traders will close their brokerage accounts within six months because they have run out of funds. The primary cause? They haven’t mastered their emotions.

Greed and fear are two opposites of the same coin. Both will throw you off your game. When you see your money plumbing downward in a spiral, many traders panic and get out taking a financial hit in the process. On the other hand, traders also try to squeeze out every penny of an upward move not knowing when enough is enough. Of the two emotions, most successful day traders will acknowledge greed is a bigger problem than fear.

If fear was their problem, they wouldn’t even attempt to play the markets. But with superb confidence in themselves, they jump in with all their bank accounts under the illusion this will be easy like everything else they have attempted and achieved. Being honest with oneself as one trades, will quickly allow reality teach lessons of life along with a greater respect for the markets.

Greed blinds oneself from reality. The desire for more, and more, without contentment places the focus on gain rather than mastering the process. The greed desire non-managed makes everything around you unimportant; including God, health, and family/friends. Time escapes into a greed trap where life becomes an addictive game of more, and more, and more for no greater purpose but to accumulate. Instead of enjoying freedom and its fruit, greed enslaves oneself within the limited confines of hell.

Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes greed is chasing after wind. You cannot ever catch it.

Jesus even commented on the subject when he stated “how does it profit someone to gain the whole world but to lose one’s soul”.

The objective is to better manage the ugly desire whenever it makes its appearance. One of the better disciplines to practice if you need help to better manage the greed desire is to practice giving without conditions. Whether you practice tithing or simply ask God to help you become a generous giver, you open the lid of the greed box and share yourself through your gain for the benefit of others who can’t ever repay you. When you realize you don’t need more stuff, but only enough, and you redirect your focus unto Jesus, then you will discover what He is trying to teach us all: life is more than having everything we desire; it’s about serving Him in His Kingdom for the sake of others.   

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Founder of
Vocational Leadership 360
Author of e-Books:

 *  Dancing With God: Life-Giving Theology Explained
 *  Great Business Emulates a Good God
 *  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
 *  Simply The Messenger
 *  Unequally Married

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Thanksgiving is ALL I Have

Dr. Mike Living the Psalms , , ,

Psalm 100:4

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

What can I give to the Lord that is truly mine to give?

He is King of heaven and earth and therefore owns it all. He gives us stewardship responsibility for everything at our disposal. How we buy and sell anything is simply the means of exchange – He still owns it all. Yet the one thing I can give Him from my most inner being is the absolute appreciation for everything He has done, is doing, and yet to do in our world called life.

The Bible speaks about the sacrifice of thanksgiving which is our attitude and manner of expressing the gratitude to the one who owns it all.

When we initially focus our attention toward Him, we approach His presence through the doorway of thanksgiving. For thanksgiving:

  • Acknowledges Him for Who He IS.
  • Expresses our attitude of repentance.
  • Shows our gratefulness.
  • Reveals our inner heart.
  • Reflects on His story.
  • Reminds us He is our Lord and we are His servant.
  • Empties the self by replacing the self with Him.
  • Restores the mindfulness of His daily presence.
  • Helps us to focus on the important values of life.
  • Rejoices over His salvation for humanity.
  • Rejuvenates the soul.
  • Gives glory to HIM Who deserves ALL glory and honor and praise.
  • Everything else is His. But my response of thankfulness is all I have to truly give Him.

How do you express your thankfulness to Him?

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Founder of
Vocational Leadership 360
Author of e-Books:

 *  Dancing With God: Life-Giving Theology Explained
 *  Great Business Emulates a Good God
 *  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
 *  Simply The Messenger
 *  Unequally Married

Encourage a Friend…Share Today’s Message!

Copyright 2013-2019 Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved