We are so full of pride. We pretend to be humble and full of Jesus, but we are so quick to rely on ourselves instead of God. We are just like Edom in the book of Obadiah.
I am sure I am like most women (or at least single women) these days, I want to be self reliant. I want to be able handle things on my own. We want to be like the peacock and spread our feathers and say, “Look at me!” “Look what I have done!”
Well, usually in doing that we end up being humbled by a few plucked feathers from God. Our only reliance should be on Him. The book of Obadiah serves as a warning not to rely on our own abilities or those of any other that would set you in direct opposition of the Lord. Wow. How often do we do things that are in disagreement with His Word and then expect Him to bless the situation? Well, I can assure you, it will not happen. God will not bless anything that is in contradiction with His Word.
Unfortunately, we have congregations and preachers that have let pride creep in. They allow unholy and unGodly behaviors and sin to run rampant among the church and have too much pride to say anything because they don’t want to lose members or offend. Well, I have been offended on more than one occasion by the Bible and will probably be offended again (usually every day when I pick it up!). Yeah, I’ve probably ticked a few off with that little paragraph, but take it up with Jesus. I don’t care what you or others think…I care what Jesus says. I’ve spent enough time pleasing self and everyone else…I choose to please Jesus until I die or He comes back. I am so burdened by what pride has allowed to creep into churches, it brings me to tears.
I refuse to be like a prideful Edom, or even like Judah who was so weak that they put their faith in Edom for protection instead of the Lord. I pray for a few feathers to be plucked from my heart that will eliminate some areas of pride in my life, so that I can look to Jesus for help, protection and strength.
