Reflection: Fear and Pride
When idols launch their covert attack, their preferred weapons of mass destruction are fear and pride.
Fear and pride are primal emotions that are hardwired within. They are basic and instinctive emotions that trigger other emotions and behaviours as a means to survive or adapt to our surroundings.
There is an intricate link between these two emotions and our desires. We experience fear and pride if we have deficiency or surplus, respectively, of what we love.
If leaders crave comfort, their fear is pain and poverty, and their pride is pleasure and opulence.
If leaders seek for approval, getting rejected will terrify them and getting praised will satisfy them.
If leaders love preeminent status and respect, they dread the thought of being inferior to others and beam with pride for being superior to others.
Think of a formidable and hardworking Christian leader who always micromanages and must have the final say in every decision. He might believe in his head that God is sovereign over the future of his career and company. And that he works for the glory of God.
But functionally, he deeply believes that only the paranoid survives and thrives. He would do everything in his power to bring the company to the next level of success, even it means sacrificing his staff on the altar of growth and profit. He does that to feed his ego and validate his identity.
In what ways are your fear and pride turned against you, and how might you guard yourself with the ‘amour of God’?
Prayer: Lord, our heart is the smallest battleground between you and the devil. Empower me with the sword of the Spirit, your holy word, to take a stand against the devil’s scheme that turns my fear and pride against us. In the mighty name of Christ, Amen.