Tim Townsend taught about pride as set forth in Chapter 11 of the book Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges. He defined pride as an inaccurate view of ourselves in relation to others and God where we have too high or too low a view of ourselves.

 The world falsely sees pride as good, calling you a rebel or a maverick or  strong willed. Scripture teaches that God hates pride, and He will judge and punish our pride—the proud will stumble and fall.

 Tim noted how pride manifests itself not only in obvious ways such as overt arrogance, but also in more subtle ways like when we’re “self-sufficient” and fail to ask others for help or  prayer, when we focus too much on our failures and limitations (believing we are hopelessly broken or useless), or when we believe that we are better than someone outside our particular “tribe” (ethnicity, political party, gender, etc.).

 Tim then explained how pride will ultimately lead us to be angry and bitter, and put distance in our relationships with others, through:

• A belief that we are entitled to things God does not promise us, making us ungrateful for the  grace and provision of God and leading us to complain or grumble
• An inflexible way of dealing with others, such as “my way or the highway”
• Taking scripture out of context as a way of justifying our demands of others

 So how do we avoid this sin of pride and replace our pride with God-honoring humility?

• Realize what Scripture teaches us: that we are deserving of Hell for eternity because of our sin, and that God saving us from that and having a right relationship with Him is all that we are entitled to.
• See others as intrinsically valuable and seek to serve others, rather than seeking our own benefit and priorities