Just reading the questions alone has given me a lot of food for thought and conviction. I continue to be thankful that Jesus' work of rescuing me from myself and my sin is finished! I pray the Spirit continues to speak to us all as we continue and that we'd be willing to submit.
Pride & Selfishness (Ch. 11-12)
Study Questions:
- "The sin of moral superiority and self-righteousness is so easy to fall into today," Jerry writes, "when society as a whole is openly committing or condoning such flagrant sins as immorality, easy divorce, a homosexual lifestyle, abortion.... Because we don't commit those sins, we tend to feel morally superior and look with a certain amount of disdain or contempt on those who do."
- Why do you suppose it is that we can so easily drift into the pride of moral superiority and then develop a spirit of contempt toward those who practice those sins?
- To what kind of people did Jesus tell the parable about the self-righteous Pharisee? Why is this significant to us? (See Luke 18:9.)
2. Which biblical principles help us guard against a sinful desire for personal recognition? (See Luke 17:10; Psalm 75:6-7.)
3. What phrase in 2 Timothy 3:1-2 describes a selfish person? Why is this so convicting?
4. Because time is precious, it's easy to be selfish with it. What do the following verses reveal about sharing our time with others? (See Acts 9:36; Romans 16:2; Galatians 5:13, 6:2; I Thess 5:14; Hebrews 6:10; 1 Peter 4:10.)
Discussion:
- Do you agree with the author that "there are degrees of selfishness as well as degrees of subtlety in expressing it"? Why or why not?
- Why is it sometimes difficult to focus on and listen to other people's interest areas rather than talking about our own? How do our selfish tendencies influence our conversations? Our activities? Our thoughts?
- If we allow sinful pride and selfishness to take root in our lives, what consequences should we expect? (See 1 Corinthians 5:6.)
Personal Reflection:
- In which particular areas of your life do sinful expressions of pride and selfishness tend to surface (home, work, school, recreation, thoughts)?
- What do your calendar and checkbook reveal about selfishness in your life?
- Compare the sins of pride and selfishness to the fruit of the Spirit (see Gal. 5:22-23). What changes might you need to make, with the Holy Spirit's help?
3 comments:
Pride and selfishness are such ugly sins, so I hate that I can so easily relate to both of them--and in fact, probably moreso than any other sin!
Personally a couple things resonated for me. The first was my need for recognition. P. 96 says, "Are we willing to labor in obscurity, doing our job as unto the Lord, or do we become disgruntled over the lack of recognition?" While I can live without recognition since that's just reality, I am most often not okay with obscurity, even if I don't outwardly express it. I let it affect how I view myself or others. I believe this type of pride in achievement for me stems from the need to feel significant, and for that I go back to my "approval of man" issues, seeking praise from people instead of trusting in God's love for me. If I could realize my significance to the Lord and allow that to be enough, I believe it would make a huge difference in my heart and in the sin of seeking recognition.
I was also struck with the selfishness of handling my time. I am a pretty careful schedule planner because I value not being too busy. And I do think that's a good value and part of how God has made me. But in the same breath I know that I can also spend so much time trying not to make my life too busy that I make it all about my own agenda and the things I can fit in without being flexible enough to go out of my for others. I think that's a balance I need to find because I think other sins could result in me in a high level of busyness, yet I need to trust God to organize and order my days and my time, which I often take into my own hands.
You know, the thought of asking friends and family what they see as my areas of selfishness does honestly not appeal to me. It's very scary because I know I'm so blind to them while I'm busy either internally or externally criticizing the selfishness or bad choices of others. It's not attractive, even to me--and I am me! :) But at the same time I know how selfishness feels when I encounter it in others, and I don't want to treat others that way and disregard God in so many ways.
Part of my prayer after reading these chapters is "Lord, purify my heart and give my the vision to see those areas where I'm only serving myself."
Hi All,
I'm late in posting about pride and selfishness BUT I have found it very interesting in the past week that I read these chapters, we talked about pride in our James study at TNT on Wednesday, and Pastor Kevin's sermon last week Sunday was also on pride...could the Lord have something he wants me to GET this week?!? I think so!!!
I liked how Jerry broke pride down into different categories--moral self-righteousness, correct doctrine, achievement, and an independent spirit. I also liked how he wrote about identifying with our sinful society as a way to keep us from self-righteous pride. He gave the example of Ezra but he could have named almost any of the prophets because they all confessed for their fellow Israelites (think of Jeremiah--the weeping prophet). I think that identifying myself with our sinful society could help me guard against a prideful heart AND actually pray for our nation at the same time.
One other thing I liked about these chapters was what he said about the pride of achievement. "You have nothing that did not come to you as a gift from God." pg94. He gave the example of the Christmas letter bragging about one's children...I think that this would be very easy to do (boast about our kids) because it seems as though you're boasting about someone else. Although currently I don't have much to boast about...I mean the examples would be things that most humans can do...hey, Chloe can feed herself with a spoon, she can run...you get my point:) But I do know that I could fall into that trap later down the road. Acknowledging that Chloe's gifts and abilities (like mine) come from the Lord seems so simple but yet very crucial as we raise our children.
In our Thursday morning Mom to Mom group this week we talked about a reverential fear of the Lord. I think that this is so important to diminishing our prideful attitudes/hearts. So I really liked the verse that Jerry had at the end of the chapter which says, "This is the one to whom I will look; he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word" Isaiah 66:2.
I could also write a lot about selfishness cuz yes, that sin fits me as well, but Chloe is awakening so I'll save that wonderful topic for another time:)
Just want to apologize for falling off the blog participation wagon lately... I've gotten quite behind in my reading! But I find it interesting that the details Beth and Sheila commented about are themes that have just come up in the past 3 days in my other areas of reading and study... Ezra confessing on behalf of his nation (seriously, how often do you read about Ezra?); how truly like the rest of the sinful culture I am, even though I don't commit the "big" sins; how an appropriate fear of God serves as a remedy for an inappropriate fear of man.
This next paragraph is a little off the topic, but there is a point if you stick with me...
Two or three friends just recently have told me some pretty amazing stories lately about how God has spoken to them, and honestly, I've been feeling jealous of that and wondering what I'm doing wrong. I've been struggling to figure out how to connect well with God now that I'm back in this infant stage of life and feeling discontent over not "hearing" from Him. All that is to say that when I read your comments and piece them together with the other things I've been encountering, it seems He's "speaking" pretty clearly and I've not really heard it because it didn't come in the form or fashion I wanted. So thanks for being a source of encouragement in my life once again!
I hope to get back on track with the book this week... Hope the rest of you will join me!
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