How do you keep score in life? We all select some sort of measurement of success that drives our behavior. It might be money, accolades, assets, degrees, vacations, or even our good works. When we keep score of our successes by standards diametrically opposed to God’s, we focus on measuring our record of achievement by lifting up what we have and what we do.

The apostle John called this the boastful pride of life, the third of three habits of highly destructive people: “Do not love the world nor 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 lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:25-17 NASB). The NIV refers to the boastful pride of life as “the boasting of what he has and does.”

Pride is the lock on the human heart; humility is the key. Humbly exchange your lock of pride for the love of the Father. Ask him for a new heart and a new definition of success, one that will hold all your achievements with an open hand in order to steward them for the advancement of the heart of Christ in others. He will make you new again.

Episode 311: Three Habits of Highly Destructive People, Part Three: Pride from mitchkrusetv on Vimeo.