Pride Comes Before The Fail

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same. - Matthew 26:34-35

Yes, you read the title correctly. And no, I didn’t mean to say “fall” instead of “fail.” I really do think that so often, when we get prideful, when we think we’ll never fail in certain ways, our pride and arrogance are what precede our biggest mistakes and slip-ups.

I recently listened to a sermon on failure. In this sermon, the pastor was preaching on the story of Peter denying Jesus, so he began by reading today’s key passage. As Jesus foretold that His disciples would scatter once He was arrested, Peter pridefully proclaimed that he would never leave Jesus’ side and that he would stick with Him all the way through His darkest days.

But Jesus, being perfect and all-knowing, told Peter that before the rooster crowed, he would have not only denied Jesus once but three times. And still, Peter didn’t believe Him.

When the pastor finished reading this passage of Scripture, he said something that was super convicting to me. He said it’s easy for us to look down our noses at Peter and judge him for his betrayal of Jesus during the worst event in history. It’s easy for us to assume we wouldn’t have done the awful things Peter did if we had been in his shoes. But the truth is, we fail every single day, just like Peter did. We make mistakes all the time, even when we have the best of intentions and think that there’s no way we could fall into the traps that the enemy sets for us.

Friend, this is where you and I have to be so careful. As soon as we think we’re above a certain sin or we won’t succumb to a certain struggle or temptation, we are putting ourselves in a super vulnerable position for the enemy to attack. Like I said before, pride comes before the fail. So we have to learn to keep our pride in check and ask the Lord to fill us with humility as we seek to obey Him.

Sure, we’re not going to be perfect. God doesn’t expect perfection from us. But we can do our part to submit our hearts to the Holy Spirit so that we are ready and able by His power to withstand whatever attacks and temptations come our way. The minute we think we can overcome those things on our own, we’re in trouble. So let’s live our lives with a posture of submission, asking the Lord to help us each day to put aside our pride and to walk the path of humility as we continue to follow Him.