Topic: Does Pride Go Before a Fall? [David Jeremiah Ministry 11 February 2020 | Turning Point Ministries]

FEBRUARY 11, 2020

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 16:18

Recommended Reading: Proverbs 16:18-21

A team of researchers in Paisley, Scotland, decided to see if pride really does come before falling. They wanted to know if high levels of personal pride could predict increased risk of future falls. They studied more than six thousand adults who were sixty and over, and participants were asked “to what degree they felt proud in the past thirty days,” and they were also quizzed about their falls. Analysis of the results showed that the odds of falling were significantly lower for people with high levels of pride, which, the researchers said, disproved the biblical maxim.¹ People with a positive self-image typically have a better posture and head position and walk with a more positive gait.

Don’t worry. The results don’t contradict Scripture. The Lord surely wants us to have as good a posture, head position, and gait as possible. But He also judges those who are haughty, self-centered, boastful, and selfish. People who overinflate their own importance develop blurred vision, and the light of heaven is obscured by the blinders of self-sufficiency.

Hold your head high, but keep a humble heart.

Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than other people…It means freedom from thinking about yourself one way or the other at all.
William Temple