The week’s memory work is Philippians 3:13-14. Shuffle the notecards you made on Monday and continue to practice putting the words in order.

Each time we go to the point of depth with God in our journey, we experience Him in a way that continues to change us over time. Depth is not a point of arrival. Depth is a place of growth. Take a moment to consider this statement. Is this a new concept to you as a Christ-follower? Why or why not?

Philippians 2:1-11:

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

In book 3 of Mere Christianity in chapter 8, titled “The Great Sin,” C.S. Lewis writes:

Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else becameequally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone. . . . Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good—above all, that we are better than someone else—I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. . . . Teachers, in fact, often appeal to a boy’s Pride, or as they call it, his self-respect, to make him behave decently: many a man has overcome cowardice, or lust, or ill-temper by learning to think they are beneath his dignity—that is, by Pride. The devil laughs. He is perfectly content to see you becoming chaste and brave and self-controlled provided, all the time, he is setting up in you the Dictatorship of Pride—just as he would be quite content to see your chilblains cured if he was allowed, in return, to give you cancer. For Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense. 

Anytime we love and admire anything more than we love and admire God, we are taking the wrong path. We can even love and admire our growth in God in such a way it becomes prideful. God wants us to know Him. He wants us to give Him ourselves. If we are growing, we will be authentic over arrogant. Arrogance invites others to look at us. Authenticity invites others to see the work God is doing in us. How do we protect ourselves from pride as we come alongside others in depth? Spend time in prayer.