ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

 FALAITE ME 8, 2026

2 KALONIKALI 1-4; 1 PITA 5:5-11

Pride is the soil in which every other sin grows.

Ko e ‘afungi, ko e kelekele ia ‘oku tupu ai ‘a e ngaahi angahala kehekehe.

Pride is the enemy of every single human being. It is the disease of diseases, the pandemic that infects and destroys everyone, apart from divine intervention. It is the reason every day is a spiritual war. It causes us to be shockingly self-righteous. It turns relationships of love into battlegrounds. It causes you to excuse your sin while being all too focused on the sin of others. Pride makes you rebel against authority, while desiring way too much power and control. It causes you to be eaten up by bitterness and envy. It makes you want to be first, and it makes waiting feel painful. It causes you to get mad when people disagree with you, and it makes you think your ideas are always the best. It makes you think you are religious, when the only thing you really worship is yourself. Pride led to the fall in the garden of Eden and has caused every fall ever since. It is the root cause of every transgression of God's law, every moment when someone tries to steal his glory.

There is only one solution to the universal pandemic of pride: the sightgiving, convicting, rescuing, forgiving, and transforming power of God's grace. Only divine power can rescue us from our obsession with ourselves and our desire to be central. Only God's grace can cause you to mourn your pride and and release you from cry out for God's help. Only grace can humble you and release you from your bondage to your kingdom of one. Only grace can keep you from constantly taking credit for that which you never could have done in your own wisdom and strength. Pride destroys. Its roadway always leads to one destination: spiritual death. Essentially, pride is about wanting the acclaim, glory, power, and control that belong to God alone.

Second Chronicles 1:1 offers a thunderous summary of Solomon's power, wisdom, and wealth: "Solomon the son of David established himself in his kingdom, and the LORD his God was with him and made him exceedingly great." Solomon is not the focus or the hero of his own story. Solomon is not the one in the narrative that we should be amazed by. Solomon is not whom our awe and praise should land on. Everything that Solomon has and has accomplished is ultimately the work of someone greater. Glory belongs to the one who chose Solomon and who exercised divine power to make him great. Why was Solomon great? Because God was with him and made him great. May this also be true of us and of every good and great thing in our lives. Humility begins when we confess that behind every form of human grandeur is the incalculable grandeur and glory of the King of kings and Lord of lords. May God give each of us the grace to make that confession again and again.