Prayer and Pride
One
Pride, lust, and greed are conquered by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
We’ve seen the danger of the three-fold disordered desires of pride, lust, and greed. In other words, temptations have immoderate attachments to self, sex, and stuff. And of these three, certainly self is the most dangerous. Pride is the most capable of derailing our entire moral and spiritual life.
Fortunately, in Matthew 6, right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave us the tools for fighting the three-fold concupiscence.
He gave us fasting to fight lust. He gave us almsgiving to fight greed. And most importantly, He gave us prayer to fight pride.
Two
Why people don’t pray?
How does prayer fight the tendency to pride, and an immoderate emphasis on oneself?
Well, first of all, if someone doesn’t pray, what do you think is the number one excuse they’re most likely to give?
You guessed it. They’ll say something like, “It’s just so hard to find the time.” Or “I never have the time.”
Now, believe it or not, that right there is an almost unbelievable admission of pride. Because what are you really saying when you say, “I don’t have time to pray”?
You’re saying, “My to-do list, my schedule, is so packed, and SOOOO important, that God Himself – the Creator of the Universe! – can’t get an appointment with me.”
One year at School of Faith, our team was getting fed up with people giving this excuse for not praying. So we decided that at our next sessions, we would ask all our groups, “Did you pray yesterday?” And we did, and, as usual, a lot of them admitted that they hadn’t prayed yesterday. They just hadn’t been able to squeeze God in. So we said to them, “Okay, got it. So what we want you to do right now is, to the best of your recollection, write down your whole day yesterday in half-hour increments.” Then we gave them some time to write down a list of all the things they had done the day before. Then we led them all into the church and had them sit down before the tabernacle. And we said, “Now go through that list, and say to Jesus – say it to His face – this was more important than spending time with You. And this was more important than spending time with You.”
Because, that’s the kind of pride you’re showing, and the kind of insult you’re giving to God when you say you don’t have time to pray.
Three
Pride, thinking everything and everyone depends on you
Pride means acting like you’re more important than you really are. And when you say to yourself, “I really have to get all these things done. I have to.” You’re actually acting more important than you really are. Because, of course, if you dropped dead this second, and nothing on your to-do list got done, the world would somehow magically continue in its orbit. Because at the end of the day, not all that much really does depend on you. We like to pretend it does because it makes us feel important, but it doesn’t.
You know who it does all depend on? It all depends on God. And coincidentally He’s the very Person who’s waiting to spend time with you in prayer.
Four
Prayer and Peace
Nothing stresses a person out like pride. Nothing stresses you out like thinking everything depends on you, that it’s all on your shoulders. Nothing stresses you out like thinking you need to prove how much you matter. That’s what wakes you at 3 AM, pride and self-reliance. You think it all depends on you. And that’s why prayer, in getting rid of pride, also gets rid of anxiety. Because you remember. You say to God, “Oh that’s right! I forgot! You’re God and I’m not. Which means you’ve got it covered, and in the long run it doesn’t matter a hill of beans if I get everything I’d hoped to do done today. Or even if I can’t make everything right for everyone I’m worried about. You can Lord, You will take care of them.
That’s so reassuring. It’s such a load off, remembering that God is God and you are not.
And then you can just rest in gratitude with the Loving Father who wants to spend time with you, who loves you, and who can handle everything else.
Five
A Pure Offering of Time
So make sure every day, you set aside some time for prayer. And make sure you make that gift of time a pure gift.
What does that mean? It means having some time every day that’s just devoted to prayer.
During that time, don’t multitask. Because when you multitask, you’re not being completely generous with God. You’re not giving Him your undivided attention. And you're not really fighting the Pride of Life because you still just can’t let go of the need to get stuff done.
Remember, God is the one who is orchestrating the universe. So if you are willing to spend time just with Him, He will make sure the time you have left in your day is that much better spent, is that much more productive in ways that really matter. Which is why people who pray more live so much more effective lives. Because they know that God is God, and they are not. And that’s the most important truth for living a life well spent.