Commitment.

Suppose we surrender ourselves wholly to God and allow Him to direct our steps. In that case, we may find after a time that without His help, without His guidance, without His counsel, we would not have successfully passed through the hardships and difficulties of life. He helps us remove various obstacles – especially pride, for it is most threatening. We cannot fight it alone. She is like cancer in our life that destroys and kills everything, that appears when we least expect it, and so on. It is insidious and often spreads silently and subtly.

The Christian reminds himself of what he must not do. After all, he is listening to Jesus. Pride typically takes the form of finish humility, speaks in a low voice, and can use everything to its advantage. Pride can destroy even good things. Why? Because that which is affected by the poison of satisfaction begins to build a shrine to pride, not God. Someone can succeed for many years in sanctifying himself, working in various fields… But if he tells himself that he has worked enough and is sure of heaven, he forgets that humility, humility, faithfulness to God bind a man to the last moment of his life.

Jesus clearly says: “Whoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone was hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.” (Mk. 9:42).

Let us consider, can a man who is full of pride, though hidden under “humility,” be a witness for Christ? Is he not a reproach? Unless the Lord God transforms us, unless He touches our pride with the edge of His love until then, we will be anti-witnesses to those around us. Our behavior is Pharisaical behavior when we cannot truly love someone more than ourselves. We quickly get carried away with anger or shut down and remain silent when someone touches our self-love. Pride is the root of all evil and sin. For it puts man in a place that belongs to God, far worse than all other things, such as sins and other falls.

Consider the thief who is condemned to death, whom we call “good,” only when he acknowledged his guilt was he able to turn to Christ and receive from Him the forgiveness of his sins. In contrast, the Pharisees stood beneath the cross, feeling righteous, asking for a sign from the cross, asking for nothing, receiving no forgiveness. Every sin cries out for mercy from God; the pride of the Pharisees does not! It amazes me what kind of guys pride can satiate. It is not insignificant to remember that everyone who has tried to fight pride has found it challenging. It’s like the dragon in the fairy tale. If we can cut off one head of pride, we may find that there are already seven in its place. But life is not a fairy tale. Therefore, it is not possible to say that I have enough merit for heaven, that nothing can happen to me, that I am strong enough, and so on. He who does not know properly what he wants will very quickly end up where he does not want to be.