Before you start reading, please take a moment to pray and asking God to reveal to you any area(s) in your heart that pride has crept in, and to repent of it before Him. I am always touched by King David’s desire to be clean and pure before the Lord:

“ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10

The sad reality is that pride prevents us from being real not only with ourselves, but also with our Creator. Pride blinds us so that we think, “I’ve got it all together and don’t need these kinds of messages…” My dear friend, as I wrote in Take Off the Mask of Pride (Part 2) , as I reflect upon my own life, the more I am convicted of the areas of pride that I need to repent of before the Lord. When we allow pride to take control of our lives, our walk with the Lord becomes, in essence, an outward show, rather than an honest reflection of what’s happening on the inside.

A reader left a comment on last week’s blog, “Thank God for His grace that calls us back to Himself! Thank you for confronting this topic… It’s not one that people like to face although we all need to do so.” I so love these words, as I truly believe it is because of His grace that He calls us back to Himself. But let’s be honest! Confronting pride in our lives can be painful, so most of us simply ignore it; either we are too prideful to admit that we have it, or we are too afraid that it may require us to change (or give up) something in our lives.

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege to share in a congregation in California about the issue of taking off the mask in our lives. At that congregation, they have two back-to-back services. At the second service, as the pastor introduced me, he stopped for a moment, and told the congregation that he needed permission to be real, and asked for prayer for his family and him after enduring a very difficult week.

While many might view what this pastor did as a sign of weakness, I was so blessed and honored to see this man of God opening himself to those whom God entrusted under his care. By his example, he showed them what it means to take off the mask in one’s life. By not allowing the mask of pride to take over, and instead laying it down, he allowed God to bring healing to his own life, while at the same time, giving his congregants a solid example of humility before the Lord.

At the end of the second service, many people who attend that congregation were willing to take off their masks, and came before the Lord with humble and repented hearts, allowing Him to work in and through their lives.

My dear friends, let’s not fool ourselves…we all wear a mask of pride in our lives which prevents us not only from drawing closer to God, but also prevents Him from being able to work in us.

Let me remind us that the opposite of pride is humility, and with humility comes a great amount of wisdom:

“When pride comes, then comes dishonor, but with the humble is wisdom.” Proverbs 11:2

Shabbat Shalom,

Moran