The ego is the main barrier to Christ working through you.
For most of my life I felt that I didn’t need God. I had everything I needed. Why would I need someone else telling me what to do? That thought was my ego talking. It was also pride talking.
I thought I was responsible for everything I had in my life. I gave no credit to God when in fact, everything I had came from Him to begin with. I just didn’t realize it yet.
I’ve slowly been learning to recognize thoughts from my ego and set them aside. Those thoughts are not from God and are often lies that take root if given room to grow. The prideful lies are incongruent with who I am when I am in Christ. Christ lives in my heart and when I let go of myself, more of Him can live in me.
If you remove pride, the Lord can begin to work through you more.
So how do you remove pride?
By asking the Holy Spirit to show you your weaknesses.
When you identify a weakness and give it to the Lord, you surrender. Surrendering control allows humility to grow.
If we approach it correctly, our weaknesses are the door by which humility can enter.
Humility neutralizes pride.
What is the cause of pride?
Pride comes from our selfish nature. It’s happens because we live in this broken world. We accomplish things in our lives and want credit for it.
Not all pride is bad. It’s ok to take pride in your work and a job well done. But it becomes a problem when it takes glory away from our Father.
Before I was Christian I took all the credit for everything I had. I bought my house, my car, and all my things. It was my work that I accomplished. I gave no credit to God.
In his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
That type of pride separates us from God. If my heart is full of pride, it leaves no space for Him.
What are the symptoms of pride?
It’s easy to notice someone who is very prideful. Have you ever been around someone that always talks about themselves? It’s a one way conversation. They do all the talking and the subject is always about them.
This is a symptom of being prideful.
Here are some more symptoms of pride:
- Being very defensive
- Always seeking credit
- Wanting to be right all the time
- Having a hard time being wrong
- Not admitting fault
- Ignoring the needs of others
- Wanting attention
How do you overcome pride?
To overcome pride, you need to find humility in an area of your life. Once you experience humility in one area, it will grow to others.
When I finally I let the Lord in to my life, he began to show me other areas of my life where I had pride. I felt shame when he showed some areas to me. Once I finally noticed the presence of pride, I began to change only through His grace and strength.
Here are the steps to overcome pride:
- Find a quiet place. Go to the Lord in prayer and ask God to reveal 3 weaknesses in your life. These can be areas that you know you need more of Him in your life. Two examples of my weaknesses are conflict avoidance and selfishness.
- Listen to what the Holy Spirit tells you and write down what you hear.
- Tell the Holy Spirit that you are turning it over to Him and you give him permission to work on it.
- Spend some more time surrendering these weaknesses to Him.
- Listen and write down what you feel He’s telling you.
By turning weaknesses over to Him, you’re surrendering part of yourself. The act of surrendering gives a little bit of room for humility and grace to enter.
When you let humility enter, you give room for Him to work. You begin to realize that your life depends on Him. Everything that you have came from Him to begin with. It wasn’t due to your hard work, he gave it to you in the first place.
Humility neutralizes pride.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
God may take your weaknesses from you or He may leave them. It’s up to Him.
In Paul’s case, he left a weakness which was a thorn in Paul’s side. Paul even says he believes God left the weakness so his pride and ego wouldn’t grow.
Imagine that. God not taking away a weakness because He knows it would cause pride to grow in Paul.
Just know that the same could be true for us too. We need to be okay with that.
But the real miracle happens when you give your weakness to the Lord. He then works through it.
We surrender and then we need to depend on Him, not ourselves.
God can work with that.