A Productive Prayer For Opposing Pride

A Prayer Against Pride

O God,
I confess the hideous scandal of my pride,
My secret quest to dethrone you,
My silent attempts to ignore you,
My sinister plans to rebel against you,
All for self-exaltation and autonomy
Rather than sacred reverence and awe.

Shine your light on my darkness,
And expose all that is stubborn and sinful.
Reduce me to where I see my helplessness.
Humble me to where I see my lowliness.
Empty me to where I see my neediness.
As I consider your greatness more,
May I consider my conceited self less.
And as I reflect on who you say you are
And on the excellence of your Name,
May I forget my gross ambitions
To make a name for myself.

You, O God, who were in the beginning,
You rely on no one for your existence.
You alone are self-reliant
And sufficient in yourself.
Before you established the heavens
And suspended the earth in time and space,
You were full and complete,
Happy and at peace,
Enjoying the eternal fellowship and love
Of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I am not like you, that I could stand alone.
Apart from you, I am nothing.

Yet in your goodness and greatness,
You sent your word out with power.
From darkness, you spoke light into being.
From nothing, you brought form.
You fine-tuned every force.
You set every electron into motion.
You invented every biochemical pathway,
And ordered each cell,
Each like a miniscule factory,
To produce the ingredients for physical life.
By your hand, I’ve been given being.
From your mind, I’ve been given thought.
Out of your breath, I’ve been given life.
Oh, Creator God, apart from you,
There would be no me.

You created as an expression of your goodness.
All you made received your commendation.
All you did was “good”
Or “very good.”
Oh, Just Judge,
I know the same cannot be said of me.
With my life I have made many things
That deserve no commendation –
Not from you, nor from me, nor from anyone.
For I have done what is wrong and wicked.

In my pride, I have refused to confess.
I have tried to conceal my impure motives.
I have shifted blame to others.
I have made excuses for my misdeeds.
I have not meditated on your Word,
For fear that you will challenge my stubbornness
And prod me toward repentance.
Acknowledging my failures and faults
Sounds more difficult to me than death,
For I’m tempted to love the glory of man
More than the glory that comes from God.

Yet I acknowledge my pride to you,
For I see, O Divine King,
That your righteous decrees are good.
You call for a standard of uprightness
Which is more pure and perfect
Than any law I would dare to enact.
For I see in your law a righteous rule
That far exceeds my moral ability.
Your judgments are just,
Your rulings are right,
And with shame I admit
My ways are lower than your ways,
And my thoughts are not your thoughts.

Yet in my criminal disobedience,
In my treasonous guilt,
In my treacherous corruption,
You did not abandon me
Or subject me immediately
To the raging fires of your righteous judgment.
Instead of executing me as your prisoner,
You have executed a plan to save me.

O Savior,
You have not left me to my filth,
You have not abandoned me to decay,
But you have entered into my story.

Jesus, how can this be?
You were holier than me,
Smart from divine knowledge,
Strong with divine strength,
Satisfied in divine joy,
Shining with divine glory.
You could have acted from a heart of pride,
Despising me in my self-imposed suffering,
Hating me in my self-absorbed narcissism,
Rejecting me in my self-adoring idolatry.

Yet you humbled yourself, in human form,
Becoming obedient to the point of death,
Even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).
And in this you show me two things –
For my pride, I deserve death,
And if you had acted in pride,
I would still be in death.
But humility is the path to life.

I renounce the self-reliance
In which I once boasted.
I grieve over my pride,
Which I once treasured,
And I come empty-handed to the cross.
Both humble myself and prizing Christ’s humility,
Affirming that he alone can make me clean
And crown me with true honor.

As I wait for Jesus to come again,
To raise the dead
And to claim his own,
Father, uphold your tender child.
Guard my heart from pride’s seduction.
Keep my ears from seeking too much
The flattery of admirers
And the folly of arrogance.
Instead, give me a ready heart
To love my spouse
To care for my kids
To serve my local church
To be productive in my workplace
To be generous to my neighbor
And to be reverent toward You, my God.

In my endeavors toward obedience,
I look not to my own ability
Nor do I rest in my own astuteness
Nor do I hope in my own ambitions,
But I seek here to lay aside my pride
And boast only in your grace.

May my life be a signpost
That points many to the kingdom of God
May my life be a map
That marks where true treasure may be found.
And may my life be a lamp
Where people may see the glory of Christ,
Not for my sake, but for the sake of your Son
And for the lasting delight of your people.
And it’s in His name I pray,
Amen.