With a sense of sorrow, I consider the wickedness of our time. This month has been disgracefully marked as “pride month.” Pride is an appropriate term to identify the brazen sexual perversion that is flooding our culture like an overrun sewer. The putrid notions of this movement undermine every good and Godly principle in our communities. Why does the trait of pride best mark the LGBTQ+ agenda? Because pride, like this movement, is the antithesis of everything innocent, wholesome, life-giving, and righteous.

God’s response to a prideful soul is unmistakable. James, the brother of Jesus, states that “God resists the proud, but gives more grace to the humble.” (James 4:6) What makes pride such a stench in our nation’s air and, more importantly, a perversion before God? Pride is an attitude that casts practical reason, godliness, humility, and compassion to the side while empowering its possessor to pursue sensual, self-destructive behaviors.

Pride cannot be reasoned with; it does not put others before its interests and it serves as a precursor to personal and social devastations. An ancient proverb warns us that pride always precedes one’s fall. (Proverbs 16:18) The tricky thing about dealing with prideful people is that their spiritual blindness is a greater challenge than dealing with wickedness such as demonic possession. To say it simply, you cannot cast a demon of pride out of someone. Pride is the terminal stage of wickedness in which defiance against God is conceived, cultivated, and discharged by one’s determined self-worship. The cancerous thoughts of pride can only be reversed when one willfully responds in repentance to the humbling presence and commands of Jesus.

According to the Scriptures, the deadly impulse of pride turned a mighty archangel (Lucifer) into a devil. If pride can do that to one of heaven’s most mighty creatures, we have a little glimpse of what it can do to a mortal. A periodic glance at recent headlines tells us of the pathway that pride will pave for a generation. It is pride that stands adamantly in defiance of God’s moral law and then charges God to be unjust when the consequences of wicked behavior result in a bitter reality of suffering.

One final thought. In considering the eternal consequence of a prideful life, I’ve wondered if those in the torment of Hell could grow weary of suffering and change their minds after a few million years. But this reality is not plausible. Hell is Hell because those within its dungeons will forever pridefully believe that God is unjust in His judgment and that they deserve something better than the torment of their own decisions.

How do you keep pride from infecting your life? Choose not to dismiss God’s voice in opportunities for self-indulgence. Don’t buy the lie of taking pride in who you are unless your identity is in the person of Jesus. Deny the notion that you deserve things because of your position, preferences, or merits. This is the first step into the chasm of darkness and self-absorption.

May this month be a time when we humble ourselves and ask Jesus to forgive the wickedness in our land. We can trust that if we approach His goodness with a humble, repentant heart, we will find that “the fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” (Psalm 19:9)

Jesus, help us bring Your healing balm to our nation. Forgive us for turning to idols. God of Jacob, hear our cries of repentance.