Pride is the devil's playground
Be careful of pride, for it will surely take you down.
"To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get." “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” - Luke 18:9-14
Pride truly is the devil’s playground. Pride doesn’t delight in having something, only in having more of it than the next person. Pride is selfish and full of deceit. Pride makes us think we are better than other people, and it is especially harmful in religiosity, like in the story above from Luke 18:9-14, when the Pharisee put himself on a peddle because of his perceived moral superiority over the despised tax collector. But Jesus recognizes and compliments the tax collector's humility while shaming the Pharisee for his prideful ignorance.
We must all be careful not to become prideful. We need to repent when we do so it doesn't take root, because at times we have all been guilty of this. Pride is a mind virus that needs to constantly be eradicated when it rears its ugly head, because it is surely a weapon of the devil that he will use for our destruction.
“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." Proverbs 16:18
