Daring to be Courageous Part 2: Pride

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Pride and Prejudice 

As we had talked about last time, there are three main reasons we do not have courage. Today we are going to be talking about pride. In the book of Daniel, there is a story of a time where it was decreed that it was illegal to worship any other god except the king. Now Daniel was the second in command over the kingdom and chose not to follow this decree. Instead he worshiped God as he always had and as his ancestors had as well. Due to this, those who were under him went to the king and reported Daniel. By the rule of the law Daniel had to be thrown into the lions den and was. The next morning the king went to Daniel and asked if God had saved him and surely enough, He had. Daniel was then taken out of the den and the leaders and their families were cast into the den and devoured.

For many of us who grew up in church this story was one we all heard on almost a nauseatingly repetitious occurrence. Before you decide you already know where I am going please stay with me and read till the end. In order for and of this to of occurred, there had to be a problem with the hearts of those who made this law. The problem we see at large is pride. All of the other leaders were jealous that Daniel had been elevated to this position since he was one of the Jews who were displaced. In fact the very idea of him being in any form of leadership was hated by the other leaders. In order for them to get rid of him they had to be able to find fault in him. Unfortunately for them, there was no problem at all so, they had to invent one. Playing into the pride of the king, they had the decree made that for thirty days, everyone had to worship only the king and if they did otherwise, they would be killed in the lions den. The king, without thinking about the consequences of his actions and only about his own selfish ambitions, chose to sign the law which made it so nothing could overturn it.

In this case we see there are two problems with pride, pride of self preservation and the pride of jealousy. Nowhere to be seen can we see a pro God pride except in the active worship from Daniel. You see, there is nothing wrong with pride if, it is meant for the glory of God and the furthering of His kingdom. Sadly though, our own selfish intentions seem to get in the way of this and lead us astray from God. We begin looking to preserve ourselves and we forget about those around us and even God. If we are more concerned about our own selves and not the will of God, how can we call ourselves followers of Christ? I am not saying we should completely abandon things that we do to take care of ourselves but, are we doing it for us or for God?

Due to the selfish ambitions of those around Daniel, his life was put into danger and their lives came to an end along with their households. Without realizing that we are hurting others we focus on ourselves and forget those around us. In this case we hurt everyone including ourselves. It's funny how if we are overly concerned with preserving our own lives, we destroy them and those around us.

Courage Application

When trying to apply the idea of stripping away pride to reveal courage there is only one way to. By removing pride from our lives and filling it with the act of worship, we take a stand for what we believe. In fact, we may have to defend our beliefs not because we wish to preserve our own lives but, rather the kingdom of God. The question is which side will you be on? So here's your dare for this section: stand tall on your faith, take pride in your God, seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God. Strip away the vanities of this life and fill the hole with true worship. Dare to be differnet...dare to be courageous.