I saw this saying today while reading a devotional on line. . ."Pride is like bad breath. . .everyone knows you have it, but you!" How true that is! I remember when the Lord revealed that spirit of pride to me! I was floored! I was on my face praying and asking God to "GET IT OFF ME!!" And He was faithful to remove it! I can't tell you how thankful I am!
As I was reading this statement God began to show me just how DEEPLY true this statement is! Let's look at one of the biggest causes and think about how it may apply to us spiritually:
Accumulation of plaque on the teeth is a major cause of bad breath.
**Plaque is a result of improper or lack of CLEANSING. Have you ever been in a hurry and took about 20 seconds to brush your teeth? As long as they did not feel like they were wearing little sweaters any more you were good! I've done it! But were they REALLY clean? Or was it just enough to make them FEEL clean and put a minty scent in your mouth for a little while? YOU felt better about it anyway, right? How often do we do that in our walk with God? Just a quick confession of sin, a quick trip to the altar and we have cleaned it up a little bit. . . enough to cover the stench of sin. . .the stench of pride. . . and make us feel better . . . for a little bit. When what we really need is to get before God and let him SCRUB all over, especially in the 'hard to reach' places, that may take a little more time and effort, and where the traces of pride and sin love to hide and try to go unnoticed! Have you ever had a dental cleaning? Call me weird, but I LOVE going to the dentist for cleanings! Yes, sometimes it irritates, sometimes it downright hurts, and a lot of times you bleed. . .but when that Hygienist is finished, you KNOW that your mouth is CLEAN! We need to allow God to do that to us regularly. Get in there and dig and scrape and get us completely clean and free of pride. Then, He can polish us up and make us SHINE!
If plaque is allowed to stay, it WILL cause tooth decay! DECAY! When the sin of pride is allowed to stay in your life, through denial or just ignoring it, it does not lay dormant. Oh no, it is not the same pride you covered up and ignored a year ago. . .it slowly but surely eats away and damages and destroys!
Recently I had to have a tooth extracted. I had only been having a toothache for about a week before I went to the dentist. But because I had not been for my regular cleanings( because of lack of insurance), some decay had gotten in at the back side of a molar up near the gum line between the teeth. So I was not aware of it. Because I had not had an EXAMINATION, and allowed the dentist to get in there and really look around for problems, it progressed to the point of having to have it extracted. I was not happy! While I love getting dental cleanings, I am not a fan of having to have CORRECTIVE PROCEDURES performed. It took them an HOUR to get this tooth out and they had to cut it in 3 pieces to get it out because the roots were not letting go! it turned into a traumatic oral SURGERY! Dental procedures have always proven to be painful to some degree during the actual procedure, at the very least uncomfortable. . .and there was usually an aching and tenderness afterward for a while as the area heals. . . Are you keeping up with the spiritual side of all of this? I hope so because this is GOOD! Is it fun to have let pride get to the point of having to have a CORRECTIVE PROCEDURE implemented by the Holy Spirit? Of course not! It means there has to be humility, admission, asking forgiveness, righting the wrongs, and then healing begins! If it has been let go for a long period of time, believe me, your breath is repelling a LOT of people! I am talking about PRIDE now! It repels and makes those in it's path sick to be around you. Have you ever talked with someone who has all kinds of dental decaying all over their teeth?? It not only smells horrible, but it looks hideous! Do we look hideous spiritually? If you have allowed pride access to live and grow within you, you do! I am not trying to be harsh, I am speaking from experience! The only people it doesn't look hideous to, is those who look just like you! Like the couple who both have rotten teeth! Misery loves company! Have you ever had a sin that plagued you over and over and you just could not seem to get past it? Once you found someone else who struggled with the same thing, all of a sudden you felt a lot better, and the struggling against it stopped. All of a sudden you felt like you were OK because so-and-so looks just like you (spiritually) and they have this ministry or do that ministry. We need to open our eyes and hearts and allow God to show us the TRUTH of our spiritual condition and stop trying to deny it and point fingers at everyone else.
Ask GOD if your breath stinks! And then be prepared for an honest answer!! Then let him get out his brushes and floss and picks and scrapers. . . and GET IT OUT OF YOU, OFF OF YOU, AWAY FROM YOU AS FAR AS IT CAN GO! It may be uncomfortable, or even painful at times, and yes even humiliating to realize others saw it all along and have been repelled by it. But when He is done scrubbing, scraping, digging, drilling and EXTRACTING, let Him get that polisher out and buff you up to a nice SHINE! Then smile, because you are reflecting Him!
2 Corinthians 7:1
THEREFORE, SINCE these [great] promises are ours, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that contaminates and defiles body and spirit, and bring [our] consecration to completeness in the [reverential] fear of God.
