We had a missionary to Japan as a guest at Christian Student Fellowship, and he taught on pride.  Al Joovi is probably one of the most humble people I have ever met.  I thought to myself, "How can he possibly teach on pride?  He's probably never had to deal with it."  Boy, was I wrong.  When Al first met his wife, her biggest complaint of him was his pride.  Al prayed about it fervently.  God changed him drastically.

   I think we can learn a lot from Al.  Pride can be overcome with God's help.  "Be careful what you pray for, it might come true."  I believe that if we're aware of our pride (and it might take someone to point it out), that we do need to pray about it to overcome it.  I think the Bible makes it fairly clear that pride is a sin and we need to change if we have it.  In Proverbs 16:5 it says, "The Lord detests all the proud of heart.  Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished."

   Do you need to give yourself a checkup to see if you're struggling with pride?  There are several fruits of pride to watch out for in your dealings with God.  The following is a list of signs of pride in your dealings with God: Instead of giving God credit, you attribute every good thing you've done to yourself.  You tend to be self-righteous.  Often you feel ungrateful when people do things for you or give things to you.  You know what God desires, but you refuse to do it.  If and when you repent of sins, you give a general idea, but don't get specific on what you did.  You don't want to give everything to God; you refuse to relinquish to God control over certain areas in your life.  If you're ever convicted of a sin, instead of being glad that God is pointing out something in your life to work on, you hate that a flaw has been found.

   There are more signs than in just your dealings with God.  What about dealings with yourself?  The following are symptoms: You're self-serving, rarely putting others before yourself.  You often feel insecure and you're extremely self-critical.  You feel like you're above accountability for your words and actions.  You sometimes wallow in your self-pity.  You tend to have a know-it-all attitude.  And of course, you think you're pretty humble already.

   Your pride also affects others.  Here are some symptoms of pride in your dealings with others: You interrupt people regularly, which also shows that you don't like to listen.  You find it hard to be open an honest with others.  It's hard for you to admit when you don't know something or when you're wrong, and you resent people who correct you.  You tend to be critical of others, and you have a hard time cooperating with others because you want things done your way.  You want others to be impressed with you, so you talk about yourself or what you're involved with.  You feel special or superior because of who you are or what you have or do such as your house, neighborhood, physical or spiritual giftings, your intellect, being a Christian, your position, job, education, car, salary, your looks, race, church, nationality, your experience, or even your walk with God.

   When I looked at all of these fruits of pride when Al talked to us, I was devastated at how many of them applied to me. Do they apply to you? Do you want to change? Pursue humility everyday. To pursue humility, you need to know the true meaning of the word. In the words of Dean Trune, humility is "seeing the vast differences between God's holiness and my sinfulness."