Pride

[DanielNegreanu 141]

I recieved this in an e-mail recently and wanted to share it with you all. The timing for it was uncanny with all that is going on in my life right now:Beware Of PridePROVERBS 16:18 NIV18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before afall.Pride is deadly. But instead of warning us the world encouragespride in every way.What is pride?Pride is faith in yourself, instead of faith in God.The root of pride is selfishness: putting yourself first.Thinking you are the most important. Thinking you know themost. Thinking you deserve better than someone else.Pride will cause you to go your own way instead of God's way.Pride makes you think you do not need God's advice or help.Pride is the root of all sin. It causes you to turn away fromGod instead of turning to Him. All disobedience has pride asits root. All rebellion has pride behind it. All mistreatmentof other people is caused by pride: putting yourself and yourfeelings above the other person and their feelings.The world system promotes people who are proud, and often givesthem great riches. Jesus said pride is evil and defiles aperson. (Mark 7:21-23)While the world may promote the proud for a short time, theirfame and success will not last.JAMES 4:6 NKJ6 . . . "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."Pride is the most serious, and the most subtle, sin. It oftengoes unrecognized.Beware!SAY THIS: Lord, help me to beware of pride.

[dpianomn 0]

hey daniel-check out II Kings 5.it's a really great record concerning pride as it shows one man (Naaman) putting aside his pride in order to receive the blessings of God, and another (Gehazi) letting his pride get in the way and suffering the consequences!hope you're well!dave.

[ahosang 0]

Luke 14:11

[Wilderness 0]

Hmmm, I'm not sure I agree with all that. What's wrong with taking pride in what you've accomplished? In being proud of your abilities? I think you need to be confident and proud to succeed in whatever you do.Now, being vain, narcissistic, or arrogant? That's a whole different ballgame.I'm not religious, so to me the whole "having faith in yourself instead of in God" doesn't mean anything to me, but if you are religious, don't you still have to have faith in yourself? I don't mean it like having faith in yourself means you think you are God or are better than God, but rather as having faith that you are up to a challenge, that you can do what you set your mind to, succeed in whatever your're doing and so on.

[Sidrat 0]

I would like to echo the sentiments of Wilderness.Having faith in a God, doesn't mean necessarily you have to stop believing in yourself.We are all unique wonderful creatures with our own distinct (and sometimes hidden) abilities.It's how we use these abilities that matter.If there are pearly gates along the journey that is life (and it's a pretty big cul-de-sac if this is the case), then my God would believe I made the decisions I have made in my life for good. Either for personal betterment, enrichment or making someone else feel good about themselves or about me.Any God that deigns to give me free will and automatically casts me in purgatory for using it the way I feel I should isn't a god I want to stand next to. Certainly one I wouldn't look up to.

[Cknman11 0]

The point of what those versus say isn't to make someone not take pride in what they do or be self confident. But rather beware the pitfalls of pride. Pride can be a great motivating factor, but all to often it can become and out of control monster that causes you to do things that you normally wouldn't but do. But you do simply for the sake of your pride.Example: Sometimes you bluff someone off a big pot and show him the bluff. He plays personal poker with you the rest of the night. Not smart, but that's what pride does.

[Slayre 0]

Pride is the opposite of humility.. and until you humble yourself before God, you will never receive His Gifts, or at least, not all of them.. I think the message tho, as stated earlier, is to be aware of what pride is and not let it get in the way of your humility...If your not religous or spiritual or don't believe in God at all, then being proud or overly proud shouldn't bother you...however,If you do believe and God... then instead of patting yourself on the back for winning a race, you should perhaps, and instead, humble yourself before the Lord and pat him on the back....I asked my Dad once, when I was 16, if he were proud of my gymnastic abilities.. and he simply said, no, not really, but I thank the Lord every day for you and your sisters health... I didn't quite get it at the time... bt over the years, it has come to make sense...I believe most if not all positive virtues stem from Humility.. I'll go on and on if I do not quit now..

[Mister Hand 0]

It ain't bragging if you can do it. Dizzy Dean It's a fine thing to rise above pride, but you must have pride in order to do so. Georges Bernanos Too much humility is pride. German Proverb "Show class, have pride, and display character. If you do, winning takes care of itself." Paul "Bear" Bryant "Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves; vanity, to what we would have others think of us." Jane Austen

[ahosang 0]

For anyone who didn't know what Luke 14:1 said, it was:For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

[Mandelbrot 0]

Humility is an asset, pride is a liability.

[wrto4556 0]

If you believe in yourself, then you have all the faith you need. I can, therefore, I will.All we have is ourselves, and if we cannot be proud of that, then we have nothing. There is vitrue in selfishness; we are a world of ego, and without egoism or objectivism we are simply mindless sheep.I have to disagree with most of you. Faith in anything but yourself is a sin through my eyes. You cannot simply have "faith" that you will solve a problem and miraculously that problem be solved (a vague example). You have to have faith in yourself to accomplish anything, and to have faith in yourself you must harness pride.To quote a ficticious novel by Ayn Rand:"My dearest one, it is not proper for men to be without names. There was a time when each man had a name of his own to distinguish him from all other men. So let us choose our names. I have read of a man who lived many thousands of years ago, and of all the names in these books, his is the one I wish to bear. He took the light of the gods and he brought it to men, and he taught men to be gods. And he suffered for his deed as all bearers of light must suffer. His name was Prometheus....I shall live here, in my own house. I shall take my food from the earth by the toil of my own hands."Notice the metaphores, and understand them. I am a very selfish person, and am truely proud of that.

[HoldemHero11 0]

Great post Daniel. I've just recently started going to church every Sunday (and most Thursdays) and this is really a great lesson to me. However I think there's a big difference between pride and self confidence. Pride is being cocky and arrogant, self confidence is having enough faith in yourself to accomplish great feats. Which act you commit is up to you.

[wrto4556 0]

I'm not argueing, basically, opinions are like a$$holes...everyone gots on and they all stink.But, can you not have pride in self confidence?Is it really, to yall, wrong to be proud?When you make a great play in poker, are you not proud?It seems wrong to deny yourself pride. If I work hard and achieve a goal, I am very proud. If I were to make millions of dollars playing poker, I would be proud. Pride is an essence of life.The bible, to me, preaches too many wrongs."Do not over-indulge in pride"..."The rich shall be judged more harshly that the poor"...It's all without logic.As someone stated earlier, pride and vanity are two diffetent things, and should not be considered one. Pride is by no means the root of all sin. Pride is, if anything, the root of all good. You do things to make people (yourself included) proud. "I would be proud of myself if I did this." It's a motivation to accomplish, and be gods. While am at it I might as well say that vanity is not a sin either. To believe you are better than someone is not bad. However, not knowing where you stand is. What I mean is, not knowing your weaknesses and strengths; your rights and wrongs.I stand aside and say that I do judge people, that I am proud of what I have done, that I will be proud of what I do, that I know I am more intelligent than alot of people, that I am selfish and greedy, that I have faith in myself and only myself, for I know what I can do, and am proud of every bit of it.

[50outs 0]

Isn't the formula "Pride is faith in yourself, instead of faith in God" way to easy? Are these people not pride of their believe and religion? What about the person who send this e-mail to daniel? Why did he send? Does he want to remind Daniel about something? Does he want to take him "back on the ground"? Does he believe this "recipe" will help? Help who? Himself? Daniel? God?I bet at least two of the major sins are involved just by sending this message out to Daniel. :? Hit one of your outs!

[Sidrat 0]

Sometimes, atleast once a day satanism (please don't go over the top with the reactions to that word I'll describe what it means later), seems to be a better option.Satanism. Probably by todays definition it's the wrong word. It is the opposite of an organised religion. But it doesn't mean Evil, Nasty, Molester. Anti-God.It just means instead of denying the good things about life and ourselves we embrace it. It's (only from the small amount I've read), a believe in nature and realising we are all part of it. Why deny yourself a victory shout after a marvelous pot win? Why deny yourself one night stands? Indeed why deny yourself any opportunity that comes your way?Organised religion and this is only my opinion which to some, many or few of you may stink like an a-hole can do good on this planet. But it doesn't do enough. Or rather it does JUST enough to keep things in balance and ergo itself in business. Organised Religions is a business. Buildings, assets, pension funds organised religions have all of these, and even managers and accountants.I take pride in my abilities. I practice what I enjoy doing, often.I'd rather cut the middle man out and think about what my God and I would be proud and happy for in my life.

[HoldemHero11 0]

I think what I lot of people don't understand is that most of it is not about "if you do this you'll get into heaven" or "if you don't do this you'll go to hell". It's mainly about how to live a better life and be a better person, and I think that anything that preaches good life skills and kindness is a great thing in itself.

[NYIsles 0]

Example: Sometimes you bluff someone off a big pot and show him the bluff. He plays personal poker with you the rest of the night. Not smart, but that's what pride does.lol... I'm sure this is what God had in mind... probably after Moses put a bad beat on him! only in a poker forum...

[Ramocita 0]

I dont thing that Daniel is trying to convey that being proud of your accomplishments and having self confidence is wrong or "bad"..... I feel that the email touched him in a personal way regarding pride and being on top and feeling invincible... however.. anything can happen and you can fall and FALL hard.........Being FULL of pride in a sense is very different from being humble.. which I think that Daniel is wanting to display has his own mannerisms.... By all means be proud and self confident in yourself if you obtain your goals in life..... just don't be too full of pride and forget what it's like to be at the bottom (HUMBLE....

[Sidrat 0]

The Lord giveth and the Lord Taketh away.Like a really bad Santa who just wants to mess with your head. But anyway.....I meant no disrespect to anyone on these forums I appreciate everyone's view point of life and enjoy listening/reading them and thinking it through in my own perspective.How about instead of the word Pride It's replaced with the word "Overconfidence"? This fits as being excessive. Where as Pride is a positive term and should be sought where ever in life you can earn it.Daniel, be Proud of what you've achieved throughout the years. Enjoy.

[Diabolical 0]

i think sidrat is correct on this one. You should be proud of all the good deeds you do. The Bible contradicts itself so many times i don't see how you can quote it when someone can use the same book to prove you wrong . And remember, the Bible was put together by a "commitee" of people who decided to omitt some books. Some of you probably know that their are more than 4 gospels. Yeah, thats right. But the "Commitee" ommitted them because some of them were very far fetched. The gospel of Peter states that Jesus had a fight with a Dragon in a cave. They didn't think that was going to be believable so they shit canned it.I went to Catholic school for 14 years and read alot from the Bible. I also did alot of independent study and I believe that we should all strive to be good people and love one another. You don't need to do that just because you want to get into heaven. And we all should be proud that we strive to be good to others. I'm sure you all know the feeling you get when you do something for someone, like let's say giving a little kid a gift. You see how happy they get and something inside you just warms your heart and you feel good about yourself. Hey, were not robots.

[mellofello 0]

too much humility is pride - german proverb, I like that, never heard that one before.The bible says god is all and in all. So it's ok to be confident in your abilities. Pride is when you believe you are the source of your abilities.Other religions also stress that god, spiritual being, kharma, life force is part of us, and part of everything. Most religions stress this even more than christianity.

[BilliardsBoy 0]

Everything in moderation. I don't believe that having pride in oneself, in your abilities and your accomplishments, is wrong. The key is to have perspective. I'm not a very religous man, but I do believe in God and the gifts he has given me. Pride is a result of confidence in oneself, which is a positive quality in character. Too much pride can blind you, but some pride can be a very good thing.I think Dan posted this email as a message to everyone in this forum. It's pretty obvious that people here can sometimes be too full of themselves and their opinions. I like to think of what the Apostle said in Dogma about believing in something can be dangerous because its hard to change a belief. But a good idea can adapt. Same goes with pride, where too much can lead to bad decissions and a failure to see the error in our past mistakes.

[epistemic 0]

Quite frankly I'd take Doyle Brunson's words over that King James garbage any day. BTW, this is coming from someone who has studied philosophy/theology on the graduate level."I've always firmly believed that too much pride can get in the way of good poker." - Doyle Brunson "I call the most common reasons for bluffing 'The Three P's of Poker: pride, panic, and profit.' Profit only sounds good to me." - Doyle BrunsonDaniel I think the only point here with the "pride" thing is that do things rationally, productively, and with your interests in mind, rather than trying to prove yourself in both the big game and life, especially when you feel subpar and your best game isn't featured. Pick your spots with surgical accuracy; you've come this far to be able to have that luxury. I realize that a lot of successful people usually haven't had the time to create a solid philosophical/spiritual or moral foundation in their lives, other than what they know second hand and implicitly. But to be perfectly honest clinging to theism is about the easiest psychologically and spiritually bankrupting approach one can take.Out