Handling Multiple Demands

God created you to be able to form habits, because the multiple demands of life won’t allow you to consciously think about all the little things you must do each day just to function in this world. So once your brain learns to connect a certain behavior with certain stimuli in your environment, that behavior becomes “automatic.” You perform it subconsciously without even thinking about it.

An example of a good habit would be the way you get ready each morning. Whether you go to school or to work, you go through the same routines. These routines may vary slightly from day to day. But basically you will turn off your alarm and then proceed to the next routine without thinking about what you are doing. When you brush your teeth, you will do it the same way you did it yesterday. When you eat breakfast, you will reach for a cereal bowl, and you will know exactly where to find it. In fact, you can carry on an intense conversation while fixing your breakfast, because you don’t have to give a single thought to what you are doing. All your actions are pre-programmed in your mind, and they have been reinforced through years of repetition. So you will get dressed without having to search for your socks. You will drive to work without thinking about the route you are taking.

Because so many of our actions are habitual, the bad news is that we can get locked into the kinds of behaviors that are detrimental to our lives. In fact, we can have habits that we don’t even realize we have. But the good news is that we can develop good habits just as easily. And once we know how habits are formed, we can circumvent the habit formation process in order to purposely develop the kinds of habits we desire.

Embrace Vitality

In Make That, Break That, I explain the science behind habit formation and the tactics a person can employ to form good habits in his life. I then propose a 13-week plan for creating a new habit in one’s life. But after I offer this information—information that has worked for me in my own life—I share with the reader a long list of suggested habits that a person may want to adopt as he works to create a new habit every three months (four new habits per year). And believe it or not, the first suggestion that I make is for a person to consider nurturing one or more habits of rest.

I am a big proponent of rest. Don’t misunderstand me. I am a big proponent of hard work, too. But I find that most hard-working people have more trouble resting than working. And rest is vital for one’s health and happiness. It is vital for one’s relationships, too.

For this reason, I encourage everyone who reads my newest book to take a critical look at his (or her) life and evaluate the quality of the rest that he gets. Some people don’t sleep enough. Some people never allow their brains to shut down. Some people claim to love their wives and husbands, their children and friends, but they never spend any time with these people. They never curl up with the person they love to watch an old movie and eat popcorn. They never just sit around, looking at old photos and laughing with other people over old memories they share together. They never take a slow walk on the beach just to think or to remind themselves of the sheer grandeur of nature.

Learn to rest by developing habits of rest. God made you to rest and to replenish your energy for the battle ahead.

Let's Be Honest

One of the first things a person needs to do in the quest to create new habits is to take note of the habits that already control his life. In Make That, Break That, I give a simple step-by-step plan to help people create better habits for themselves. And one of the things I do in this process is to ask the reader to make a list of the new habits he or she would like to develop over the upcoming year.

But before I ask the reader to make this list of new and helpful habits, I recommend that he (or she) compile a list of the bad habits that currently plague his life. Some of us tend to procrastinate. Others among us pay our bills late every month. Still others talk over people, become visibly impatient with people, or habitually run late for meetings or forget a person’s name minutes after meeting that individual.

Before you can make a realistic list of the new behaviors you need to hone in your life, you should take an honest appraisal of where your life stands right now. You need to know about the subconscious things that you do every day through the habitual behaviors that you have exhibited for longer than you can remember.

Unfortunately, because these detrimental behaviors are activated on a subconscious level and performed on a subconscious level, we often don’t even know that they exist. We can’t see our own bad habits. But this is where friends and family members can be very helpful.

I don’t believe in dwelling on the negative things in life, but I do believe in being honest and facing the truth. Living in denial is never a viable solution to any problem. So if you have bad habits, try to understand what they are and what drives them. Genuine change always begins with honesty.

A Required Response

How do bad habits arise, and why do we seem to have more bad habits than good ones?

Bad habits arise when we find ourselves in difficult situations that require a response. To deal with these situations, we will do whatever is necessary to minimize the discomfort and put an end to the dilemma. In a difficult social situation, for instance, we might tell a “little white lie.” Or during a difficult yet important test at school, we might take a quick glance at another student’s paper. And when we are a tiny bit short of having the cash we need to pay for the pizza we ordered, we might “borrow” a little money from a roommate who keeps his wallet in his desk drawer.

But the problem with these socially acceptable compromises is that they teach the brain a shortcut to solving that particular problem. So when a similar situation arises in the future, the brain will remember the action that got you out of hot water the last time, and the brain will prompt you to engage in a similar activity. Whether you know it or not, your brain remembers the connection between the problem and the solution that brought you immediate relief. So the brain will “write” that solution to its hard drive. And when you repeat the action a few more times, a habit will be formed, a habit that will become subconscious, spontaneous, and automatic.

We rarely think about it while it is happening, because habits are formed gradually over time. But habits are habits, nonetheless, and they can dictate the course and the outcome of our lives. So our habits can appear to be “innocent” while they are taking shape. But the things we do routinely and with little thought are the things that will define us unless we change them.

The Power of Programming

New habits are not the product of self-discipline or self-control. Determination and willpower do play a role in the initial stages of habit formation, but we humans are not built to operate under self-imposed duress for long periods of time. Eventually our bodies and brains will rebel against our efforts to force ourselves to do things we really don’t want to do.

This is why it is important for a person to use the short-term power of self-discipline to train his body and brain to perform a new behavior. Then, by the time his willpower expires, the new behavior will be permanently programmed into the subconscious parts of his brain. The behavior will become a fixed and automatic activity that is performed without thought or intent every time the circumstances demand it.

So to create a new habit, you must intentionally interrupt your old patterns of behavior and purposely inject a new behavior into your regimen of “automatic” activities. And to do this, you must tie your new behavior to something that is already automatic in your life. If you do, your brain will “absorb” the new behavior and prompt you to perform it regularly and without thought. But if you don’t tie your new behavior to habits you already possess, your brain won’t prompt you to perform the behavior routinely. Instead, you will have to discipline yourself to perform the behavior, and that approach won’t last very long.

In Make That, Break That, therefore, I teach the reader how to do this. And surprisingly, it isn’t that difficult. With a little bit of thought, a little bit of creativity, and a little bit of planning, you can develop a new habit of success every three months that can set you apart from the ordinary performers around you and set you on a path to achievement and personal fulfillment.

Did you know, your tomorrow can be better than your today. I’ve been going through a list of words that will help each of us make the rest of our year, the best of our year. The tenth word on my list is “expectation”. What are you going to do with the days you have left this year? Let’s start with what you are expecting. Did you ever think about how we are all different and even if we have the exact same skills and talents, what we do with them will be different from each other. Think of it like this. If we each bring home a bag of identical groceries, I’ll put them together differently than you. The dish you come up with will look and taste differently than mine. If we take the ingredients of each day, it will be different from what someone else might do with the same ingredients. Regardless, we take what we’re given and we want to make the best of it.  

What are you expecting? What are you expecting for the rest of the year, for the rest of your life? The level of your expectation sets the level God is free to work. We can change the world by changing the level of our expectation. We can change what happens in our families, our circles of influence, and our churches on a Sunday in the same way. Whatever you expect with confidence becomes your self-fulfilling prophecy. Read Mark 11:23-25. Have no doubt, believe you have received and you can have anything you ask. It will be yours. But, when you pray, forgive first. So God will forgive your sins too.  If you believe little, you will receive little. You don’t have to settle. Pray bigger. Expect bigger. Receive bigger. It doesn’t take any more energy to have a big dream than it does a little dream. With God all things are possible.  Michelangelo said, “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our dream is too high and we miss it, but that our dream is too low and we reach it.” Don’t settle for reasonable and disconnect yourselves from the abundance God has available. 

The Habit Loop

Did you know that up to 90 percent of your behavior is habitual? That’s right! Up to 90 percent of the things you do are behaviors you perform habitually. In other words, you do them without even thinking about them.

The “habit loop” is the process we undergo to develop all our habits. Our brains start attaching a particular behavior to certain circumstances in our lives, and then, when we reap a physical or psychological reward from performing that behavior, the brain remembers those nice feelings and prompts us to perform the same action the next time the circumstances are similar. So over time this process becomes subconscious and starts to impact every aspect of our lives. It is vital, therefore, for a person to develop good habits, because habits shape a person’s daily experiences. Then all those days run together to define that person’s life.

Most of us are aware of our bad habits, because our bad habits cause problems for us. But the habitual nature that God gave us when he created us is not intended to be a bad thing. It is intended to be a good thing, because, if a person can develop bad habits, that person can develop good habits too. So the hopeful news is that the habitual nature God gave us can be utilized to help us form the habits we need for success.

You probably already have as many good habits as bad ones, but you probably don’t notice your good habits because you perform them without realizing what you are doing. But if you were able to develop those good habits, you can develop more good habits. You can trick your own brain into helping you nurture the kinds of behaviors you want in your life, behaviors that will lead to health and happiness, behaviors that will lead to a fulfilling life.

On this Mother’s Day, regardless of what this day means to you, we can agree that children are important to Jesus.

Throughout history, people have attempted to paint the perfect portrait of Jesus. Sometimes, He's smiling. Sometimes, He's crying or praying. We all have our gentle, sweet image of Jesus, but that picture isn't complete. If we're really going to understand the Savior of the Bible, it's time to take a fresh look. For years, Christians have asked, "What would Jesus do?" But what if we asked a more illuminating question, "What made Jesus mad?"

The theme verse through this series is from Matthew 23:13, "You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces." The three times that the Bible says Jesus was mad is in the temple when religious activity blocked access for the Gentiles to get to God (He had a “temple tantrum” there), the Sabbath healing where He was grieved by the hardness of their hearts (they cared more about the rules than people getting to God) and the woman caught in adultery (stay tuned). His people, church people, missed the point - people's needs. 

People need access to God and they need care. God's first commandment is love God. The second commandment is love your neighbor. Who's your neighbor? It's God's kid. We can't make God happy when we’re blocking His children from a healthy relationship with Him or neglecting real needs. The Pharisees were busy counting out their dill seeds for their tithe and straining gnats from their drinks so they didn’t eat anything unkosher. But, all the while, God’s kids were in need all around them. They just didn't care, or didn’t take time to look up from their religion to notice. The point is not to focus on following religious rules in order to please God, but to love God and love your neighbor. By the way, you can't do one without the other. 

Today, my focus is the case of Jesus’ own disciples. "People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them." They're like, "No kids right now. Jesus is busy." When Jesus saw this, He was indignant. What made Jesus mad? His disciples were blocking the children from coming to Him. I always imagined Jesus saying “Let the kids come to me” in a soft, gentle voice. But, this is in His mad voice, “You knuckleheads, it's not about all the important adult stuff. These are the people that need to get to God.” I know the disciples had good intentions, but this made Jesus mad. As a matter of fact, He followed it up with the craziest statement Jesus ever made, “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea” (Matthew 18:6 NIV). This sounds like Tony Soprano, not how I imagined Jesus speaking based on my Sunday school pictures.

Today, I continue with a message on things that made Jesus mad. Anytime there's blocked access to God, it makes Jesus mad. If you haven’t seen my message on Jesus’ temple-tantrum from last week, please go back and read/listen.

So, legalism… I hate it. If you've got a stupid rule, I'm going to want to challenge it. I want to know why the rule is there and if it makes sense! Rules are never going to be able to cover every scenario we could come up with and an effort to try to make rules that do so results in stupid rules.  Do you realize your behavior, your judgment, your rules, may be keeping people out of Heaven?? Jesus said it this way in Matthew 23:13 (NIV),“Woe to you …You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” Earlier in Matthew 23, Jesus spoke to the crowds and said, “Do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.”  To quote a modern icon, Homer Simpson answered Bart’s question about what religion they were, “You know, the one with all the well-meaning rules that don't work out in real life... Christianity.” What happens if Homer's statement is true? Well-meaning rules that don't work in real life create a huge unnecessary barrier and this makes Jesus mad.

So, do we not need rules? Of course, we need rules. I know we need rules. I know society needs governance. God gave us rules because He loves us. That's the difference. He loves us so He gave us rules. Think about the Ten Commandments for a second. They're all for our benefit. They provide a foundation for a relationship with our loving Father and for our general well-being, individually and socially. Here's the thing, the problem is whenour interpretation of the laws of God hinder people getting to God. At that point they are our laws and our rules. If we don't understand God’s laws but we’re expecting others to follow those interpretations, it creates a barrier for people to get to God. This makes Jesus mad. In Mark 3:1-6, Jesus decided that it was time for the Pharisees to learn a lesson about forcing people to go through well-meaning rules that don't work in real life. And so, He broke one of them. “Once again Jesus entered the synagogue, and a man with a withered hand was there. In order to accuse Jesus, they were watching to see if He would heal on the Sabbath. Then Jesus said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Stand up among us.’ And He asked them, ‘Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?’ But they were silent. Jesus looked around at them with anger and sorrow at their hardness of heart. Then He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ So he stretched it out, and it was restored. At this, the Pharisees went out and began plotting with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.”

We are halfway through the year and I want to pause and help you understand that no matter how your year has gone, whether great or terrible, you can make the rest of your year the best of your year. God works all things together for your good and no weapon formed against you will prosper. All things are made new in Him. Don’t fall into a thinking pattern that whatever has happened to you or whatever will happen to is God's will. Your decisions shape your circumstances. For example: If you run out of gas on the freeway, this is not God’s will. It was your decision to not buy gas 10 miles back. If everything that happened was God’s will, there would be no reward for obedience and no penalty for disobedience. “Whatever will be, will be” is not truth and it is not the way God works. You can’t go back and start your year over again, but you can start from now and make a brand new end.

The difference between seasons is wisdom and the difference between miracles is information.
Hosea 4:6 says people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. You can be connected and not informed and you can have access but not possess. You may have access to the King, but not know what He knows. We need to be looking and seeking wisdom. It’s available. Ask for wisdom. I believe I have some wisdom for you today. How do you impact the rest of your year to finish it well and make it the best?

How's Your Attitude?

Generally speaking, are you an optimist or a pessimist? Do you see the glass half empty or half full? All our lives, we have been taught that attitude is a choice. Attitude is not a matter of genetics or a matter of upbringing or a matter of the circumstances impacting our lives; a person’s attitude is a choice that he makes regarding the way he will respond to the world around him.

But I would actually go a step farther. I would propose that a person’s attitude is a habit. It is something that is learned through a repetitive response to inner feelings and the external world, and it eventually becomes an automatic reaction to everything in life.

Did you know, however, that your attitude is more than just an attitude? It is more than just a way of thinking or behaving. Your attitude actually affects your health. People with positive attitudes have a higher tolerance for pain than people with negative attitudes, and positive people have less stress in their lives than people with sour dispositions.

Just like any good habit, therefore, the habit of a good attitude can be learned over time. In real life, good experiences and bad experiences tend to balance out. But because our attitudes are based on perceptions, not reality, those perceptions can be reshaped if we will follow the simple steps that are necessary for creating a new habit.

In Make That, Break That, I explain the simple steps for forming a new habit, including the habit of a better attitude. And while the bad news is that these steps will take time to implement in your life, the good news is that they can make a lasting difference. A new habit, once acquired, can truly change the trajectory of your life and the perceptions that shape it.

A Strange Convergence

Dreams are a lot like seeds. A seed has to be planted and watered, and it has to have sunlight in order to thrive. But with time and care, a seed will eventually break through the soil into the light of day. And a seed will become a stalk or a shrub or a tree or a vine. Dreams have many of these same qualities.

A dream is a long-term goal for one’s life. And while some dreams pertain to relationships, other dreams pertain to one’s career. And while some dreams pertain to financial promotion, other dreams pertain to athletic or musical achievement. In fact, if you think about it, real life—the kind of life that is fulfilling in every way—is nothing more than the steady pursuit of those dreams that truly matter.

But dreams aren’t achieved just because we want them, and they aren’t achieved with the passage of time alone. We have no “right” to our dreams. Dreams are achieved through a strange convergence of the things we can control and the things we can’t. But all of us know that dreams are more likely to come true if we “work” those dreams the way a farmer works the soil. And if we do the work that our dreams require, they are more likely to actually happen.

This is why good habits are so important on the journey to success. It’s the little things we do every day that eventually determine whether our dreams break through the soil or whether they die in the cold, damp ground. An athlete who wants to compete in the Olympics, for instance, will watch what he eats, and a woman who wants to build her own business will rise early and stay late at the office.

So look to build those habits that will build your life. Success won’t happen by accident.

Go For It!

I had a friend who started a gluten-free diet with his wife to try and isolate some health issues. In the end, the diet did not do anything special for him but it did help his wife. Going on the diet did not yield great benefits for him, but my friend had nothing to lose and much to gain.

In the same way, I want to encourage you to try the things I have been sharing with you the past few weeks. You have nothing to lose, but everything to gain. Put into action the things you have learned from these principles and I know you will see results and benefits. Try them! You have nothing to lose. Commit to work in your everyday life so you can experience firsthand just how powerful your own thought processes can be and how strongly your thinking can affect every aspect of your life.

To further assist you on your journey, I encourage you to search your heart, be completely honest with yourself, and identify the one thing that you want more than anything else in life. Identify this primary driving motivation – that one thing that floats your boat and quivers your liver more than anything else – and write it down in one phrase or one sentence so you can use it as a launching pad for a short-term trial of these principles. If you could achieve one thing before you die, what is it that you would achieve? Focus on this phrase or sentence for four weeks. Read it a few times in the morning and the evening and all the in-between moments when you have time to focus for a minute or two. Say it out loud during the course of your day. Do this every day for at least four weeks. (If you haven’t read my book Make That, Break That on habits, you can buy it today at davemartin.org!)

I am not the author of this concept. In Deuteronomy 6:7-9, after God had given the Israelites His law, He gave them this piece of wisdom, “Impress (these laws and truths) on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” God designed and created the human mind and knows how He designed it to work. He set us up for success! We just have to do what He told us to do.

Without even realizing it, a person becomes what they think. They drift toward those things. My four-week challenge will help you take the initial steps toward a mindset shift. It will get your focus off the negative and onto those real desires of your heart, what I believe is most probably your actual purpose in life or a contributing goal to that purpose. You will begin to see ways that you can make it a reality as you dwell on this phrase or sentence. You will begin to understand your own capacity to create success for yourself and see your own potential for sharing in the world’s abundance that God has provided and set before us. I believe if you commit to this challenge daily for the next 28 days, that you will have a new habit that will completely revolutionize you as a person and set you on a course that can alter the outcome of your life.

The goal of this exercise is to help you stop thinking like everyone around you – narrowly and for the short-term. Catch yourself every time you start drowning in the mundane and repetitive problems of day-to-day life that deplete all of your thinking time, leaving no time to consider nobler things. What I want for you is that you learn to formulate a mental picture of your strongest personal goal so it can begin to dominate your thinking, impact your planning, alter your actions, and change your life. It will take time to unlearn old patterns but do not give up! Take control of your mind. Let it only think about the things that you teach it to think about and only consider the data that you program into it.

I go into more detail regarding this process in Chapter 7 of my book Mindset Matters. It’s one of the best ways to invest in yourself, and in your future. Do this for yourself today. It is truly Success Made Simple.

No one plays this game or any game perfectly. It’s the guy who recovers from his mistakes who wins.
—PHIL JACKSON

All my life, I have been struck by the countless similarities between sports and life. Both sports and life require know-how, both demand talent and skill, and both can lead to glorious and fulfilling victories. However, sports and life are marked with obstacles and setbacks too, with mistakes and with crushing defeats. They are each marked with opposition, competition, and failure. And they offer us challenges, as well as opportunities to correct our mistakes and to rise above our failures. In athletic competition, there is always the next game or the next season. In a basketball game, there is always the chance to rebound a missed shot. And in life, we must create the same opportunities to turn failures into successes. We must keep “pounding the boards.”

NOT LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP, BUT
LEARN BEFORE YOU LEAP

If you were standing on a diving board, preparing to jump into the pool below, you would at least glance at the pool to make sure it was filled with water before making your dive. But it’s amazing how many people attempt great feats in life without investigating the risks and rewards associated with those ventures, and that is why so many people fail.

Happy Easter! This is the day we celebrate Jesus conquering death and the grave. During our service today at MCC, we heard an amazing testimony of redemption and restoration, literally a story of a life bound for death and destruction to a life of promise and hope. It reminds me of God's goodness. It makes me crazy about God. I want more of Him. On Easter, there is so much pressure to preach well in hopes that people will love the message and return for more. How do I get this message right today? If I do well, maybe people will come back for Christmas. How do I make Jesus’ torture, crucifixion and death exciting? How do I explain the resurrection which is the most exciting part? All of this is hard for some to believe because they don’t understand. But actually, people believe a lot of things they don’t understand and can’t explain. God wouldn't be a God worth believing in if we understood Him completely. He is a big, amazing God. We just need to ask the right questions.

In considering the message today, I looked to Jesus for answers. The Gospels talk about Jesus and how He spoke to large crowds with lots of visitors and guests. What did He do? I usually try to make things simple and easy but Jesus seemed to make things more confusing. In Luke 8:4-10, He tells the parable of the sower. Keep in mind, people had traveled long distances to see Jesus speak and hopefully perform a miracle. They’d heard about healings and teachings and raising of the dead. So what did Jesus teach this crowd of guests and visitors who were so anxious to hear Him and see Him? He taught them a parable and then closed with the statement, “Anyone who has ears to hear should listen and understand.” His take on his talk that day was,  “If you get it you get it (and if you don’t, you don’t).” Then, He just walked away, dropped the mic, left the stage. The disciples were so curious to know what He was doing. They followed Him and asked about the meaning of the parable later. Jesus explained that the parable was for the seeing who don’t see and the hearing who don’t understand. Parables were not supposed to be easy to understand. He taught parables so the ones who really wanted to understand would go after Him. He was trying to reach those who wanted to search out the truth. He only wanted to speak to the ones who really wanted to hear and learn and understand. Like the farmer in the parable, He wasn’t going to take time to water a beaten down path where seed could not grow. He knew He couldn’t get through to people who couldn’t receive because of the cares in this world. That ground was not ready. Those seeds would wither and their roots wouldn't go deep.He knew that those who wanted God would clear everything else out of their lives in pursuit of learning and understanding what God was saying. The disciples were those people. They were all in. They wanted something different so they did something different. A farmer looks for good soil. This is where he will water.

Secure Your Victory

There is a war going on and a lot of Christians are just simply not engaged in the fight. The Bible has a lot to say about this. Ephesians 6:10 teaches us, “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.” Picture this, the devil is at the drawing board trying to come up with a way to trip you up, or mess you up, or destroy your life (John 10:10). Sometimes I think the devil is working harder to destroy us than we are working to keep it from happening. 

What are we to do? How do we face this? “Put on every piece of God’s armor (you are in a battle and you need to dress for it) so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. (This is not “if “ the day or the time comes but “when” it comes) Then after the battle you will still be standing firm” (Ephesians 6:10-13 NLT). Today. I'm going to expose the devil for who he is.  

A couple of weeks ago, we talked about humility - what it means to be humble. Today, I want to continue on that topic. A lot of people have the wrong idea of what humility is. They think being humble means you have to let people walk all over you, that you can’t do anything, or that you don’t have anything nice.

 Well sure, you can look at yourself as that, but wouldn’t you rather want to know what God says about being humble? After all, His opinion is the only one that really matters. But let’s be honest. Humility of all the virtues is the hardest one to gain and maintain. Why is that? Because we all want to be first, we all want to be seen, and to simply feel that we are important. And the truth is that we can be all of those things, not in ourselves, but in Christ. In and of ourselves we are nothing - but in Christ, we are everything. 

So, humility- what is it? Well it’s the opposite of pride. And as you may know, this month of June is pride month, but we’re calling it “humble month”. Pride means to boast, to be high-minded, or in other words, to think of yourself more highly than you ought to. Now, this doesn’t mean that God wants us to have low opinions of ourselves, or not see ourselves with value. Rather, it’s a matter of not having the mindset that we are better than other people. 

The reality is, that when we judge or criticize others, it’s the fruit of pride. Pride is the reason you don’t want to apologize when you know you’re in the wrong. It’s the reason you can’t forgive when someone has done you wrong. Luke 14:11 says, “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” When we look at satan, we see that pride is the reason he fell from Heaven. He wanted the glory for himself - wanted everything to be about him. God sure humbled him. This isn’t something that God takes lightly. He hates pride.