Ken W. Davies - One Step to Happiness

Copyright 2021 Ken W Davies

Paperback: 978-1-63767-530-4

eBook: 978-1-63767-531-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021920808

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

Any text in italics or bold is simply personal emphasis.

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Contents

I am very grateful to Ken Proctor and Tony Hodgson for the many improvements they suggested to the text of this book.

Thanks, guys.

My thanks also go to my editor, Jennifer Coffey, for the many amendments to the manuscript, to my wife Guinette for her encouragement and helpful comments on the text, and to Martin Fletcher for the title he suggested.

It is a common myth that the way to happiness is through fame and fortune. Youngsters dream of becoming pop stars or footballers, while others dream of winning the lottery jackpot. None of these dreams are sure-fire ways to happiness because some of those who have made it to the top have been honest enough to admit that the success has left them feeling quite dissatisfied and empty.

Since we cannot be assured of happiness at the top, it is worthwhile investigating the bottomand after all, Jesus did say, Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5). There is joy and happiness to be had by being humble. Philip Yancey saw this in practice as he interviewed many people, both stars and servants. The latter included many well-qualified people who worked among the homeless, the suffering, and the outcasts. He said, I would rather spend time amongst the servants than the stars. He went on to say, They possess depth and richness, and even joy that I have not found elsewhere.

Jesus possessed much joy in his role as a servant of humanity.

If we want that joy, we must emulate his servant heart, discarding our pride.

That and humility are two topics which rarely get more than a brief mention in the life of the Church, and even then may be poorly understood. I became a Christian in my teens, but even at the age of fifty, I could not have defined or described them well. For the benefit of people in a similar state, I have tried to clarify them so that they can be recognised more easily. We can then see more clearly what effects they each produce.

When a person realises they are proud, it can be like discovering they own a plot of land overgrown with weeds, each a different expression of pride. It has taken a long while for various seeds of pride to take root in our garden, and most of us have not noticed how they were flourishing, nor how deep their roots are. In common with gardening, clearing out these weeds is not just a one-off activity but a matter of frequent attention. Some of us find it difficult to distinguish between weeds and flowers, so this book has been written in the hope that the weeds of pride can be more easily identified and eradicated. The section entitled Recognising Pride contains a list of some symptoms by which pride may be recognised and rooted out.

When we consider humility, we discover that it is like a fragrant flower that cannot be bought at a nursery or transplanted from someone elses garden. It needs to be nurtured carefully, from seed. Just as weeds inhibit the growth of flowers, so pride inhibits the development of humility. Pride must be rooted out if we want to become humble. My personal efforts at weeding will never be complete, but it seemed worthwhile recording here the lessons I have learned for the benefit of others.

This book focuses on presenting an understanding of both pride and humility so that the reader knows how to discard one and embrace the other in order to gain the joy that accompanies it. The presence of pride or humility can have major consequences in our lives, and some of these are mentioned later in the book. We begin by considering how pride may be associated with spiritual blindness.

W hat initially prompted me to look at the subject of pride was a section in the book called The Final Quest . Its a revelation experience that God gave to Rick Joyner. At one point in the experience, Rick was clothed in shining armour, watching Christians battle against a demonic army and winning. An angel near Rick told him to look at some shadowy figures in a small valley nearby. Rick asked if there was some way that he could see these figures better and was given a rather drab cloak. He was told that it was the cloak of humility and that without it, he would not see very well. Once he wore it, he could see these new figures they were demons of pride, able to attack and weaken the Christians without being seen. With the help of some other demons, they captured the Christians and led them away. At one point, Rick wanted to warn the Christian fighters, but the angel told Rick it would be a waste of time, saying that the fighters wouldnt recognise Ricks authority unless they also wore the cloak of humility.

This incident shows how pride can weaken the Church almost to the point of extinction. It also associates pride with blindness toward spiritual realities since the warriors, who could not see pride, were overcome by it. The association of pride and blindness is also found in the Bible.

Biblical association of pride and blindness

The Pharisees were proud, wanting the most important seats and places of honour (Matt. 23:5-7). Jesus called them blind guides, blind fools, and blind men in Matt.23:16-19, commenting on another occasion that their blindness would cause them to fall into a pit (Matt. 15:14).

Whole churches can project an image of pride, and we usually find that it is the prestige and possessions that blind us to our true spiritual condition. An example is the Church at Laodicea, proclaiming, I am rich. I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. However, Jesus said, You do not realise that you areblind (Rev. 3:17).

Some New Testament words seem to equate pride and blindness. The Greek word tuphoo , translated as conceited in 1 Tim. 3:6, means literally wrapped up in smoke and is used metaphorically to mean puffed up. The same word is translated as blinded in 2 Cor. 4:4, where Paul writes, The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. No doubt Satan tries to put a smokescreen around the truth whenever he can.

Because pride and spiritual blindness so often go together, when we find one, we will almost certainly find the other. When they occur together, the blindness of pride can make it self-concealing and thus difficult for an individual to detect in themselves.

Pride as a spiritual disease

In the book of Proverbs, we find that The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished. (Prov. 16:5) So, we know that pride is a sin, but for a moment let us consider it as a sicknessa spiritual one. It is catching, and we so easily infect one another with it. If someone is proud to me, I can be caught out and be proud in return. Someone may say, for example, that they have just spent two weeks in Australia. I might go one better by saying, Oh, we went there last year for four weeks. We had an absolutely marvellous time. The words of an old song epitomise this approach: Anything you can do, I can do better. No, you cant. Yes, I can. For some people, pride is partly inheritedor caught from parents.