A new spiritual season can bring fresh blessings, relationships, growth, and opportunities. It can also reveal attitudes that keep those gifts from bearing fruit. The obstacle may not come from outside opposition. Offense, unforgiveness, pride, and self-reliance can sabotage, from within, what God wants to bless you with on the outside in this season.
So ask yourself, “What if pride is quietly blocking the very thing I’ve been praying for?” Philippians 2:3-11 gives a clear answer. Paul shows how to recognize selfish ambition, follow Jesus’ humble pattern, and let Christ shape our thoughts and relationships. The call is timely in these “High Holy Days” leading up to Yom Kippur: examine your heart, repent quickly, and enter the next season with humility.
Overcoming the Sabotage of Pride Begins With Christ’s Mindset
Paul wrote Philippians from a humble prison to believers facing pressure and persecution. He urged them to live as citizens of heaven and conduct themselves in a way that honored the Gospel (Philippians 1:27). Their faith needed to shape their conduct, unity, and treatment of others.
In Philippians chapter two, Paul tells believers to value others above themselves. This does not mean self-hatred or denying God-given gifts. Humility means seeing yourself clearly while refusing to place your importance above everyone else.
Pride twists self-perception. It produces an inflated view of personal value, ability, or status. Secure people do not need to mention their credentials in every conversation. They can acknowledge their strengths, honor God as the source, and make room for others.
Humility Is Seen in Relationships
A person cannot establish humility by claiming to be humble. It appears in how people listen, respond to correction, treat those with less influence, and handle ordinary tasks. Jesus washed His disciples’ feet after knowing who He was and where He came from (John 13:3-5). His security made service possible.
Humility also appeared in Jesus’ obedience to the point of death for us—His focus was on others; His focus was on having many sons (offspring); the focus of His humility was relationships. Following God may require surrendering comfort, praise, reputation, or control. Consider one area of your life where the need to be seen or validated competes with obedience.
Recognize the Hidden Evidence of Pride
Obadiah 1:3 says, “The pride of your heart has deceived you.” Pride can hide beneath success, confidence, religious activity, or independence. It may also make a person defensive when others point it out because it is deceptive.
The worst kind of deception is self-deception, and self-deception is rooted in pride. Don’t let it sabotage you in this season. Take the initiative to humble yourself, and God will exalt you in due season.
Dr. Lenita is the senior pastor of Action Chapel Baltimore and Action Chapel North Carolina churches. She hosts the Prayer Power for Life Podcast, has authored nine books, and is an international speaker on a mission to communicate with passion, propel people into their purpose, and teach transformative truth across the globe. She founded the APT Apostolic and Prophetic Network and Midnight PrayerWatch with Pastor Lenita. She is a former Accenture consultant with college teaching experience, professional instructional design experience, a member of the RAINN speaker’s bureau, and a trained counselor. Lenita is also a Christian International/Bishop Hamon authorized prophetic instructor and graduate of the CI School of the Prophets. She has traveled the globe as a keynote conference speaker in the United States, London, Jamaica, Ghana, Uganda, Haiti, and Kenya. She has a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering, a Master of Arts in Dance Education, an MBA, and a doctorate in Christian Counseling. Sign up to connect, receive more blog posts, and get updates on courses, books, and events.