May 13, 2020 Pride goes before destruction

​If you read the prophecy from yesterday you saw that America is in trouble, and pride is at the root of it.  Something is attracting the two breasts out of the sea straight to our nation’s center of government. It is most likely pride, greed, and power. Each side of our government is continually speaking against the pride, greed, and abuse of power the other side has, without seeing it in themselves. We have become prideful, and that is NEVER good.
 
Proverbs 16:18-20  Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling.  It is better to be humble in spirit with the lowly Than to divide the spoil with the proud.  He who gives attention to the word will find good, And blessed is he who trusts in the LORD.
 
Pride – exaltation, arrogance, preeminence, self-driven to be the best
Destruction – fracture, ruin, break in pieces
Haughty – arrogance, pride
Stumbling – falling into ruin
 
God knows how to humble us, to break the grip of pride off of our lives.  He does this by allowing us to undergo pain and judgment, for the purpose of getting our attention so we will repent and turn back whole-heartedly to the Lord. 
 
Hebrews 12:5-6  You have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives."
 
In this passage in Hebrews we see that the Lord disciplines us when we are straying from God’s way for our lives. He does this out of His incredible love for us and His desire for us to return completely to Him. His discipline starts with a reproof – a convicting message we hear in church or in our quiet time. If we do no heed this word of reproof, He will bring us discipline. This would involve some pain to get us to become aware that we are off track. But if we allow our hearts to be overcome by pride and refuse to repent, He will bring scourging.  In the natural, scourging is a very painful form of punishment.  
 
Right now the entire world is going through a time of scourging, with His judgment of the corona virus and the ensuing curtailing of our freedoms and the devastation of our economies. We must see that we too are full of pride and self-driven.  Remember pride leads to destruction, and destruction means to fracture and break in to pieces.  We must humble ourselves before the Lord and repent of our pride before it totally fractures our faith, families, churches, states, and country.   
 
Please take the time today to ask the Lord to show you the areas in your heart that are filled with pride, and even the ones where pride is trying to get a foothold. God is pleading with us to give attention to His Word and trust in Him!