Gloating

This to me is not an attractive characteristic. Gloating means “to contemplate or dwell on one’s own success or another’s misfortune with smugness or malignant pleasure”. Gloating carries with it a huge thread of arrogance as well. This is not a characteristic that is becoming for a Christ follower. In Ezekiel, the Lord punishes Tyre for gloating. Check this out…

1 In the eleventh month of the twelfth year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 2 ‘Son of man, because Tyre has said of Jerusalem, “Aha! The gate to the nations is broken, and its doors have swung open to me; now that she lies in ruins I will prosper,” 3 therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves. 4 They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock. (Ezekiel 26:1-4 NIV)

I believe that gloating a close relative of pride. I believe that the Lord detests pride and arrogance. I believe the Lord loves and honors the humble in heart. In fact, I believe that I’m responsible for humbling myself before the Lord. I also believe the Lord loves it when I’m empathetic with others. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. (Proverbs 11:2 NIV)

I think it’s very important to keep my heart in check and make sure that pride is pushed out. I believe humility and empathy represents the heart of God.

Pressing On!

Dwayne