“Pride, we may be sure will keep us out of God’s presence, because it would not suffer angels themselves to stay in it” (Edward Pelling, 1692).
Isaiah 2:17 The pride of man will be humbled And the loftiness of men will be abased; And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day,
Proverbs 8:13 “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate.
God loves the glory of His grace and all that is of man that does not come from His grace and by His grace comes by pride. If we claim to love God, then we must love Him with all of our being and hate the things He hates which stand against Him and His glory. What we don’t realize, however, is just how much pride is in our hearts when we quarrel with God in our dissatisfaction with Him in His sovereign dealings with us. When events happen to us regarding our possessions, jobs, status in life, and health our hearts murmur. Why would God do that to us? People think that they are great buds (pardon the irreverence, it is to make a point) with God and that surely He would not do anything that is not in their self-interest (determined by them, of course).
As we think of numerous events in Scripture and the severe trials God brought upon men, we can see how wicked our hearts are in comparison to them. Scripture gives us the account of Job and of all the sufferings that God brought upon Him, but Job is never given a clear reason why those things happened to Job other than God is simply God. That was enough for Job and he bowed low before the living God (Job 42:1-6). What would have been the case if Job would have murmured and complained that God did not love Him and had no right to treat him that way? It would have been proud and wicked.
We are also told of how God revealed to Samuel what He was going to do with the sons of Eli and the house of Eli. When Samuel told Eli what was going to happen, Eli simply responded with “It is the LORD; let Him do what seems good to Him” (I Sam 3:18). But what would have been the case if the heart of Eli rose against the LORD and became angry for what God was going to do? But again, that would have been a very wicked thing to do and certainly have demonstrated a heart full of pride.
The Scriptures teach us that God has ordained whatsoever will come to pass and that we are His to do with and dispense with as He pleases. Who are we to complain that God is treating us unjustly or perhaps without true love? Who are we to raise the voices of our self-centered wisdom against the eternal wisdom of God? Who are we to complain that the eternal God who has existed from all eternity in perfect and infinite love does not love us in the right way? Oh what wicked hearts we have to murmur against the living God for what He has ordained from all eternity for His own glory and the true good of His people.
We can compare the nation of Israel with the Lord Jesus Christ. The nation of Israel began to complain against God quite quickly as they longed for tastier food that they had had back in Egypt. They forgot that they had been delivered from a brutal oppressor who had enslaved them and set up cruel standards. They murmured against God and against Moses and brought judgment upon themselves because God viewed that as a great sin. But the Lord Jesus Christ, on the other hand, when He as a perfectly innocent and holy being was faced with going to the cross for the sins of others, He said “yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). The Lord Jesus knew what the Father was going to do in that the Father was going to pour out upon Him a fiery wrath for the sins of all His people. While this was repulsive to His soul and His flesh screamed out against it, He did not murmur or complain against God and His eternal decree to carry this out. Instead, we are told that He was meek as a lamb and did not complain. The humble Savior had no pride and so there was no murmuring against God.
A humble heart can only be obtained from the humble Savior, so a true humility will always mirror His in some ways. True humility will seek to be low before the Almighty and in the dust regardless of what He has ordained. The greatest battle there is in our day is for hearts to be willing to bow low before His eternal will and seek Him for grace to stand firm that He may be glorified in it. This is not to say that it is easy, but that it is right.
God Loves... Himself 
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