My dearest Seeking Sister,
If we feel disgusted by a fellow seeking sister—if we begin to distance our self from her or always find fault with her or feel insulted by almost everything she does—we are likely in great trouble! The sin of pride may be producing its evil fruit, and the division is strong evidence.
Against whom do we evaluate ourselves? Pride will often evaluate the self against those we consider lesser. Pride must do this in order to maintain a sense of worth albeit a false sense. To preserve itself, it will search until it finds a flaw with another.
If it chooses to evaluate the self against someone it views as better, pride will make us feel damaged because the result of the assessment clearly changes. When pride has you coming out on bottom, it will often compel the person to compete against—and attempt to defeat—the superior one to preserve her status (Proverbs 13:10). Pride’s power can only work in the realm of deception and it will corrupt your walk by producing evil fruit through faulty evaluations.
Evaluate yourself only through the loving eyes of Jesus Christ. That is the only lens where you’ll find truth, love, and the proper path to self-improvement. If you are compelled to evaluate others, do so only through the eyes of Christ. It is there where the playing field is leveled and you can relate from a place of sincere love and compassion.
In His Grip,
Tammy
Additional Scripture study:
“He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people: “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’”
Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’
Jesus commented, “This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.” – Luke 18:9-14 (The Message)