FAITH CAPSULE: A hardened heart rides on empty pride for self-destruction.  

Daniel 5

An empty pride heart is arrogantly lifted to be destroyed.
God does not have plans for those with pride but to pass them unto their self-destruction.
God addressed pride through Jeremiah, “Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: ‘In this manner I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, who refuse to hear My words, who follow the dictates of their hearts, and walk after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be just like this sash which is profitable for nothing.” (Jeremiah 13:8-10)
In the wicked world, pride has taken a prominent position.
The word of God makes it clear that pride is evil.
With pride, man refuses to hear God.
The majority are in a position to hear but give themselves to the dictates of their heart.
The walks of the pride are not in the word of God, but in the character of one who serves God.
Pride of the heart becomes the agent to destroy.
Uzziah was an example of a prideful heart.
Uzziah was sixteen years old whenhe became King.
He reigned for fifty-two years in Jerusalem because God lifted him. Uzziah did right in the sight of God. He sought God as God made him prosper.
Later, as King, “…he was strong, his heart was lifted up, to his destruction, for he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.” (2 Chronicles 26:16)
One with a lifted heart to self-destruction is the character of empty pride to become hardened.
As the King, it is wrong to burn incense to God as a priest.
When Priest Azariah corrected Uzziah for his wrongdoing, he became angry, and leprosy broke out on his forehead.
God lifted Uzziah, the pride of the heart, and reduced him.
2 Chronicles 26:21 records, “King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He dwelt in an isolated house, because he was a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the Lord…”
Among the ways to avoid becoming a victim of pride is to keep your heart with all diligence. (Proverbs 4:23)
King Uzziah was a victim of a hardened heart.
Nebuchadnezzar was also a great king until he became a victim of pride through his hardened heart.
Daniel 5:20-21 recorded, “But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. Then he was driven from the sons of men, his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses.”

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace not to live life as a victim of pride.