Before we fall

I have fallen flat on my face so many times, I can't count them.  There is a reason for this and I would like to share it with you.  I know that we all have suffered falling, I am talking about a Spiritual fall.  We all have suffered Spiritual falling, it is human nature to be lifted up and then comes a hard fall, not every time, sometimes it is an easy fall, maybe a warning against the bigger fall.  So let's check out the reason for this.

Proverbs 16:18  "Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall."  I think the haughty spirit comes before pride and so maybe this is a warning that we need to catch the haughty spirit before it turns into pride and we fall flat on our face.  I never saw it this way before and maybe, just maybe I could have prevented some serious falls, anyway now I know and will watch for that haughty spirit.

Proverbs 11:2  "When pride comes, then comes shame."  I can't tell you how many times I have felt ashamed of my ugly spirit or haughty spirit.  I don't know where it came from because I was always  a timid person, I guess it was when we bought a business and I was in charge of all the help and it sort of made me tough which I hated but after ten years, I guess I got use to it and in came that haughty spirit, the know everything attitude.  I was sitting one day at the dining room table, after we had sold our business and I was contemplating my character, I think it was God showing me what I had become and it was not a pretty sight.
I just bowed my head and asked Him to help me be what I use to be and it has taken a while and I still find myself catching that haughty spirit and then I read that God hates pride.

Proverbs 8:13  "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way."  I have found that in most places in the Bible where it says fear the Lord, the fear means reverence the Lord, so in this case if we reverence the Lord we will hate pride and that is my goal.  To hate it so much that it is not a part of my character any more.

Proverbs 29:23  "A man's pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor."  Sometimes God rebukes us through someone else and they don't realize they are rebuking us.  That happened to me once and I have never forgotten, it seemed I had an answer for everything, a know it all spirit, I am so ashamed to admit that but it is true and a friend asked me something and I gave her my know it all answer and she said, 'you have an answer for everything, don't you?'  I realized then that my pride was out of hand.

James 4:6  "But He gives more grace. Therefore He says; God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."  So let me be humble in spirit and leave all my pride and know it all attitude behind so that I may have God's grace abiding in me.  How about you, isn't that one of our greatest needs, is His grace, so let's
have a humble spirit, if He can give me one, He can do it for you and He will, because He is working on me daily to prepare me for a place with Him someday.  Won't you join me?  Grandma Joan