Battling Unbelief: Pride

It’s been a good week: People have complimented my recent sermon, which makes me feel talented. I was accepted into a good seminary, which makes me feel smart. My wife is about to have a baby, which makes me feel like a stud. And both my fantasy football teams won, which makes me feel like a good coach. I’m feeling good about myself. That is, until I read John Piper’s Battling Unbelief, which makes me feel like maybe I’m not even a Christian.

Why do I say this? Because Piper convincingly describes the sin of pride as a sin of unbelief: “pride is a species of unbelief. Unbelief is a turning away from God and his Son in order to seek satisfaction in other things. Pride is a turning away from God specifically to take satisfaction in self. So pride is one specific form of unbelief” (39-40). He quotes Jeremiah 9:23: “Let not the rich man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches.” Why? Because this boasting in self is antithetical to boasting in God.

I realize that all of my good feelings this week were because I have been satisfied in myself and my own abilities. This is easy when things go well. But what about when we have bad weeks? That’s when pride turns to anxiety. “If we could not make things go our way in the past, we may not be able to in the future either” (51). What is the common link? Unbelief.

What I need to do, according to Piper, is to trust in the sovereignty of God and find my satisfaction in him: “The way to battle this arrogance is to yield to the sovereignty of God in all the details of life, and rest in his infallible promises to show himself mighty on our behalf (2 Chronicles 16:9), to pursue us with goodness and mercy every day (Psalm 23:6), to work for those who wait for him (Isaiah 64:4), and to supply us with all we need to live for his glory (Hebrews 13:21)” (48).

So rather than pat myself on the back, let me give glory to God. God, thank you for using me to communicate your word. Thank you that your Holy Spirit touched lives. Thank you for the opportunity to go to school. Thank you for bringing a beautiful woman into my life and allowing us to have children. Thank you for the opportunity to fellowship with brothers in Christ through football. May you use all of these things for your glory, and when they stop glorifying you, may you take them away. And if you take them away, may I continue to give you praise and thanks for what you have done.