defeat stronghold of pride completely.
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We hear your honest confession and we join with you in bringing this stronghold of pride and self reliance before the Lord, thanking Him for the work of repentance He has already begun in your heart. Like King Asa who in his later years relied on the king of Syria instead of relying on the Lord his God, we too can so easily trust in our own understanding, our own resources and our own knowledge rather than fully depending on the grace of God, as it is written in 2 Chronicles 16:9 For Yahweh's eyes run back and forth throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.
The Word warns us plainly about this, for Proverbs 16:18 says Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall, and 1 Corinthians 8:1 reminds us that Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Yet there is great hope for the humble and repentant heart, for James 4:6 says God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble, and 1 Peter 5:6 says Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Your desire to have pride eradicated and to start again is pleasing to God, for Lamentations 3:22-23 tells us It is because of Yahweh's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn't fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness, and 2 Corinthians 5:17 says Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
We also want to gently remind you that it is only through Jesus Christ that we have access to the Father and receive this grace for a new beginning. You mentioned the grace of God and repentance, and we rejoice in that, and we want to affirm that there is salvation in no other, for Acts 4:12 says There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved, and Jesus Himself said in John 14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. As we confess our sin, God is faithful to cleanse us, for 1 John 1:9 says If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And where we are weak and still learning to rely wholly on Him, His answer remains 2 Corinthians 12:9 My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
We pray together with you now.
Father, in the name of Jesus Christ we come before Your throne of grace with our brother who has humbled himself and confessed the stronghold of pride and self reliance. We thank You for granting repentance and for Your mercy that is new every morning. We ask that You by Your Holy Spirit completely tear down this stronghold, for 2 Corinthians 10:4 says the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds. Lord, pull down every high thought and proud imagination that has trusted in knowledge more than in Your grace. Create in him a clean heart and renew a right spirit within him. Teach him daily to walk humbly with You, to depend not on his own understanding but to acknowledge You in all his ways. Let him know in a deeper way that Your grace is sufficient and Your power is made perfect in weakness, so that he may boast not in himself but in Christ alone. We pray for a true new beginning, that he would be strengthened to live as a new creation, relying fully on Jesus, bearing the fruit of humility, gentleness and love. Forgive him, cleanse him, and establish his steps as he starts again with You. We ask this in the mighty and saving name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.
We encourage you to continue to humble yourself daily before Him, to pray and to stay in the Word, asking Him to search your heart and keep you dependent on His grace rather than on your own strength or knowledge. God resists the proud but He lifts up and restores the humble, and He will be faithful to complete the good work He has begun in you as you abide in Christ.
The Word warns us plainly about this, for Proverbs 16:18 says Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall, and 1 Corinthians 8:1 reminds us that Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Yet there is great hope for the humble and repentant heart, for James 4:6 says God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble, and 1 Peter 5:6 says Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Your desire to have pride eradicated and to start again is pleasing to God, for Lamentations 3:22-23 tells us It is because of Yahweh's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn't fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness, and 2 Corinthians 5:17 says Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
We also want to gently remind you that it is only through Jesus Christ that we have access to the Father and receive this grace for a new beginning. You mentioned the grace of God and repentance, and we rejoice in that, and we want to affirm that there is salvation in no other, for Acts 4:12 says There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved, and Jesus Himself said in John 14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. As we confess our sin, God is faithful to cleanse us, for 1 John 1:9 says If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And where we are weak and still learning to rely wholly on Him, His answer remains 2 Corinthians 12:9 My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
We pray together with you now.
Father, in the name of Jesus Christ we come before Your throne of grace with our brother who has humbled himself and confessed the stronghold of pride and self reliance. We thank You for granting repentance and for Your mercy that is new every morning. We ask that You by Your Holy Spirit completely tear down this stronghold, for 2 Corinthians 10:4 says the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds. Lord, pull down every high thought and proud imagination that has trusted in knowledge more than in Your grace. Create in him a clean heart and renew a right spirit within him. Teach him daily to walk humbly with You, to depend not on his own understanding but to acknowledge You in all his ways. Let him know in a deeper way that Your grace is sufficient and Your power is made perfect in weakness, so that he may boast not in himself but in Christ alone. We pray for a true new beginning, that he would be strengthened to live as a new creation, relying fully on Jesus, bearing the fruit of humility, gentleness and love. Forgive him, cleanse him, and establish his steps as he starts again with You. We ask this in the mighty and saving name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.
We encourage you to continue to humble yourself daily before Him, to pray and to stay in the Word, asking Him to search your heart and keep you dependent on His grace rather than on your own strength or knowledge. God resists the proud but He lifts up and restores the humble, and He will be faithful to complete the good work He has begun in you as you abide in Christ.
We were moved by your honesty in naming pride and self reliance and by your repentance. It takes real humility to see that knowledge has taken the place where dependence on God's grace belongs, and to want a fresh start.
We hear your longing for pride to be completely gone. In our experience humility is not something that disappears overnight or comes from trying harder to think less of ourselves. It grows slowly as we learn to live in right relationship with God and with others, choosing to value and serve others and to stay aware of our need for Him. That often happens through honest reflection, staying open to how others see us, and turning again to God when we notice self reliance creeping back.
One practice that helps many is to invite one trusted, godly person who knows you well to share honestly how they see pride or self reliance showing up, and to walk with you in prayer as you practice daily dependence. You might begin each morning with a simple acknowledgment that you need His grace for that day, and in the evening briefly review where you leaned on your own understanding and where you leaned on Him.
Father, we thank You for this brother's repentant heart and his desire to walk humbly with You. Draw him close, teach him to rest in Your grace, and form in him a quiet strength that serves others. Keep him in Your love as he begins again. In Jesus' name, amen.
We hear your longing for pride to be completely gone. In our experience humility is not something that disappears overnight or comes from trying harder to think less of ourselves. It grows slowly as we learn to live in right relationship with God and with others, choosing to value and serve others and to stay aware of our need for Him. That often happens through honest reflection, staying open to how others see us, and turning again to God when we notice self reliance creeping back.
One practice that helps many is to invite one trusted, godly person who knows you well to share honestly how they see pride or self reliance showing up, and to walk with you in prayer as you practice daily dependence. You might begin each morning with a simple acknowledgment that you need His grace for that day, and in the evening briefly review where you leaned on your own understanding and where you leaned on Him.
Father, we thank You for this brother's repentant heart and his desire to walk humbly with You. Draw him close, teach him to rest in Your grace, and form in him a quiet strength that serves others. Keep him in Your love as he begins again. In Jesus' name, amen.
Spurgeon
Beloved of All
Your honest confession before the Lord is itself a mercy, for pride is a vice whose seat is the heart of man and whose consequence is destruction, yet humility is a grace that has many promises and many mercies suspended from it. To see, as you have, that you have trusted knowledge more than the grace of God, and to turn from it, is not a work of nature under terror but the fruit of Divine Grace.
Know this, that true repentance is not a preparation for grace but the first result of grace working within the soul. It is the gift of God, wrought by the Spirit who wrote the book writing also upon the heart. The head learns by nature but the heart must learn by Divine Grace. You rightly say you have repented, yet remember that repentance lives as long as faith. It is not a single operation to be gotten through at the commencement of the spiritual life and then forgotten. Sweet sister repentance is charming company and should walk with us all the way from sin's pit to Heaven's gate, for the whole road is paved with Divine Grace.
You ask that pride be eradicated and that you might start again. Take care that you seek genuine humility, for the imitation of it is the nearest thing in the world to pride. Humble men are mostly conscious of great pride, and we are not always good judges of our own hearts. Pride so often assumes the shape of lowliness when it has its own end to serve. Therefore seek of God the gift of true humility, which gives God glory and looks out of self to Christ and to Christ only.
The Lord of Hosts has purposed to stain the pride of all glory, that no flesh should boast. His grace is freely given in the most emphatic sense, it is not of him that wills nor of him that runs but of God that shows mercy. When you stand before the throne you will stand there through Divine Grace alone. So your starting again must not be in self reliance resolved to be more humble by your own strength, but in a daily dependence upon Christ.
True repentance unto life will be practical and lasting. It purges the soul from dead works and admits Christ to be the sole master of the heart. It pulls down and then faith builds up. Ask then, does your repentance yield works meet for repentance, does it make you avoid present sin because of the love of God who died for you, does it last beyond a moment of conviction.
Labor then to serve the Lord with all humility, humility before the act, humility during the service, and humility when all is done. Remember that you are mortal and that you are by nature a depraved creature whom grace alone has made to differ, and let wonders of grace keep you low. Pray that the Holy Spirit would enlighten your understanding and influence your affections, to keep you soft and fertile by the gentle dew and rain of grace, that knowledge may be held in subjection to love and to the cross.
We join you in prayer that the Lord would in His sovereign mercy stain what remains of pride in you, grant you deep and abiding humility of mind, teach your heart what your head has known, and keep you looking to Jesus Christ alone for pardon and for power to walk anew. May He give you that repentance which is unto life, which preserves you in Jesus through this temporary state and leads you to glorify His free bounty all your days.
Know this, that true repentance is not a preparation for grace but the first result of grace working within the soul. It is the gift of God, wrought by the Spirit who wrote the book writing also upon the heart. The head learns by nature but the heart must learn by Divine Grace. You rightly say you have repented, yet remember that repentance lives as long as faith. It is not a single operation to be gotten through at the commencement of the spiritual life and then forgotten. Sweet sister repentance is charming company and should walk with us all the way from sin's pit to Heaven's gate, for the whole road is paved with Divine Grace.
You ask that pride be eradicated and that you might start again. Take care that you seek genuine humility, for the imitation of it is the nearest thing in the world to pride. Humble men are mostly conscious of great pride, and we are not always good judges of our own hearts. Pride so often assumes the shape of lowliness when it has its own end to serve. Therefore seek of God the gift of true humility, which gives God glory and looks out of self to Christ and to Christ only.
The Lord of Hosts has purposed to stain the pride of all glory, that no flesh should boast. His grace is freely given in the most emphatic sense, it is not of him that wills nor of him that runs but of God that shows mercy. When you stand before the throne you will stand there through Divine Grace alone. So your starting again must not be in self reliance resolved to be more humble by your own strength, but in a daily dependence upon Christ.
True repentance unto life will be practical and lasting. It purges the soul from dead works and admits Christ to be the sole master of the heart. It pulls down and then faith builds up. Ask then, does your repentance yield works meet for repentance, does it make you avoid present sin because of the love of God who died for you, does it last beyond a moment of conviction.
Labor then to serve the Lord with all humility, humility before the act, humility during the service, and humility when all is done. Remember that you are mortal and that you are by nature a depraved creature whom grace alone has made to differ, and let wonders of grace keep you low. Pray that the Holy Spirit would enlighten your understanding and influence your affections, to keep you soft and fertile by the gentle dew and rain of grace, that knowledge may be held in subjection to love and to the cross.
We join you in prayer that the Lord would in His sovereign mercy stain what remains of pride in you, grant you deep and abiding humility of mind, teach your heart what your head has known, and keep you looking to Jesus Christ alone for pardon and for power to walk anew. May He give you that repentance which is unto life, which preserves you in Jesus through this temporary state and leads you to glorify His free bounty all your days.
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