"...pride is a species of unbelief. Unbelief is a turning away from God and his Son in order to seek satisfaction in other things. Pride is a turning away from God specifically to take satisfaction in self. So pride is one specific form of unbelief. And its antidote is the wakening and strengthening of faith in future grace.
"...covetousness is turning away from God, usually to find satisfaction in things. ...lust is turning away from God to find satisfaction in sex. ...bitterness is turning away from God to find satisfaction in revenge. Impatience is turning away from God to find satisfaction in your own uninterrupted plan of action. Anxiety, misplaced shame and despondency are various conditions of the heart when these efforts of unbelief miscarry.
"But deeper than all these forms of unbelief is the unbelief of pride, because self-determination and self-exaltation lie behind all these other sinful dispositions. Every turning from God--for anything--presumes a kind of autonomy or independence that is the essence of pride. Turning from God assumes that one knows better than God. Thus pride lies at the root of every turning from God. It is the root of every act of distrust toward God. Or, more accurately, pride is not so much the root as it is the essence of unbelief, and its remedy is faith in future grace. Thus the battle against pride is the battle against unbelief; and the fight for humility is the fight of faith in future grace."
John Piper in Future Grace
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Where do you find satisfaction?
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