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Bowen's Daily Meditations
Devotional: February 8th

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"God resists the proud." - 1 Peter 5:5.

Pride is robbery. It is the robbery of that which is most precious and sacred in the universe, namely, the glory of God. To the Maker of the universe belongs all the glory of the universe. Pride takes its stand over against God and defies him. It claims for itself the tribute that belongs to God; and would have all eyes directed to itself, all knees bent before itself. God must resist pride: resist it when angels sin; when men build a tower of Babel; when men say of the voice of Herod, ’’ it is the voice of a God." He must resist it for the sake of truth; for the vindication of himself; for the safety of his Church; for the well-being of the universe; for the satisfaction of angels; for the chastisement of the wicked.

But do you know who are the proud? Do not err. You think of them as a particular class, of whom you occasionally meet one, and who are generally disliked by men. But these are simply those whose pride manifests itself offensively to mankind. Men are all proud, even the universal family of man; and those only are escaping from the stigma who have deeply repented of sin, renounced all confidence in their own goodness, avouched themselves bankrupts in the sight of God and man, received the whole testimony of the Scripture, believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and through him approached the throne of grace.

God resists the proud, by awakening in their breast a monitor to remind them of their sin, weakness and ignorance; by letting them pursue the course they proudly chose for themselves, and taste the bitter fruits thereof; by the example of Christ’s sublime humility; by the unhappiness and morbid sensitiveness that wait on pride; by his providences which leave them shorn of the things they glory in; sometimes even by the insults of men.

You are resisted in your prayers and know not the reason. The difficulty is that there are enormous pits of unworthiness within you, over which pride has cast its mantle. Seek to know these, to hate them, and to have them filled with regenerating grace, and you will no more be thwarted in your prayers.

You are resisted in your attempts to do good, and wonder greatly at this. But you have not a single eye. You are ready to take honor to yourself. Humble yourself and become a simple steward, a conveyancer of God’s mercies.

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