The past few chapters have especially hit close to home for me and I thought they may be relevant enough to share. The book has talked about the roots of insecurity in our lives and where our feelings of inadequacy come from. While there are a so many places insecurity comes from, pride is one of the greatest roots of all insecurity. A lack of pride will cause insecurity in ourselves quicker than anything else and it will cause us to look at others through eyes that have a filter over them that somehow relates everything back to "ME."
Pride and Identity have a direct relationship. Our identity often times is a result of our own pride- what we do well, when we feel we look our best, etc. If I base my identity on my pride and things I am prideful in or about, my identity will undoubtedly be a freaking rollercoaster. Let's face it- there are days when I don't feel I look my best and there are days when I feel like I do nothing very well. On those days, my pride suffers. On those days, my identity is lost.
In the book, Beth Moore makes a great connection between Genesis 1:27 and Ecclesiastes 3:11.
Genesis 1:27 says that God created man in His own image. (which is perfect, by the way).
Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God set eternity in the hearts of men.
Since we are created in the image of God, and we have eternity set in our hearts, we have something inside of us, a desire, that knows we are made for something more. Something enormous.
Beth Moore goes on to say "Pride is the result of mistaking the eternal for the temporal."
Wow....our pride SO gets in the way of what God wants to do in our lives. Pride causes us to focus on our selves more than God. When we focus on ourselves more than God, we have a false sense of identity. The false identity focuses on the temporal. The true identity focuses on the eternal.
"Confidence is driven by the certainty of God-given identity and the conviction that nothing can take that identity away."
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