POST SCRIPT

The abbreviation PS has different meaning to various audiences. The electronic generation may automatically think of Play Station. While others may reference it to a Police Sergeant. For this post, I am referencing this abbreviation to mean post script.

P.S or post script is a Latin term, describing “written after”. In the days of handwritten or typed letters P.S indicated that something was added after the letter was created. Sometimes, it was funny; a reminder; a warning; or a way to get a specific point across.

Today, Post Script may have never been learned, forgotten or have become obsolete, or completely foreign, mainly because the days of letter writing has become a thing of the past.

God wrote the letter of our lives before we were formed. The world has added a post script to the letter of our lives. The PS that was added, after God created us, was pride and stubbornness.

Pride and stubbornness is not funny. It is not a warning. It is a reminder something else was added, after the creation. God did not compose us to be prideful or stubborn.

Pride is associated quickly with name dropping, design wearing and money flaunting people. Or, with the individuals who think they are more important or better than other people, believing certain tasks and duties are beneath them.

Points of pride, that is often overlooked

• thinking your way is always the best way
• the unwillingness to admit you are wrong
• the inability to say you are sorry
• not taking responsibilities for your actions
• casting the blames of your life on other people
• criticizing others because they do not act, look or behave the way you think they should
• always comparing the lives of others with your life
• finding faults with others, but refusing to find the fault in yourself

The list can go on and on. Before you verbalize the notion that you are not prideful or you do not have a stream of pride flowing in your veins, check out the list above. Honestly, can you relate to some of the point or all of them? If so, you may have hidden pride issues.

Solutions? Ask God for hidden forms of pride and ask for ways to overcome them. Then, do the opposite of the list above. For example, if you think your ways are always the best ways; be open to hearing other people’s ideas, thoughts, suggestions and opinions. Begin to admit that you are wrong, be accountable for your actions and quit blaming others for your failures in life.

The spirit of pride damages the things you say, things you do, and the way you act. In turn, this spirit affects the people around you. With a prideful spirit, you will eventually be brought down.

Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18 King James Version (KJV) 

Pride affects your relationship with God. You will begin to think you do not need God. Your thoughts will overpower His thoughts and you will believe you can do things without Him.

The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. Psalm 10:4 King James Version (KJV)

Pride causes guilt, regret or embarrassment, because you are always competing against others to be right, to have the best, to do the most, and to always be on the top. That can be exhausting. Eventually, with pride, shame will follow.

When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom. Proverbs 11:2 King James Version (KJV)

Stubbornness is refusing to change your ideas, beliefs and concepts. Or, the refusal to stop doing something. Most obstinate people are difficult to deal with. They are unyielding. Pride and stubbornness goes hand in hand.

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry…1 Samuel 15:23 King James Version (KJV)

Pride makes you think your ways are the best ways. Stubbornness will not allow you to change your ways. Factors that may facilitate stubbornness.

• Fear. As always, fear is at the top of the list. Fear is that emotion that causes you to be afraid or to worry about the unknown. With stubbornness, you are locked in a certain pattern. You may become too afraid to do anything else or anything new. This breeds stubbornness.
• Too old to change. It is never too old to do, act or behave in another matter. I do not believe the line “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. That is an excuse. You can do anything IF you want to do it.
• Comfortability. As mention in previous posts, people are addicted to comfort and convenience. With this attitude, stubbornness prevails because you are not willing to go outside the box. You are comfortable just where you are.
• Your way worked for years. This may be a correct concept. What happens when your ways are no longer working? Do you continue to travel in circles, going nowhere? Is stubbornness preventing you from trying?
• Rebellious nature. This can apply to any age, but the younger generation, often has a spirit of rebellion because they just do not want to abide by anyone in authority. This can be parents, government or any official. Also, these rebels often scoff at normal standards of dressing, behaving or thinking.

God created us to be humble and have sense of willingness to perform His Word, wisdom and ways. Rewrite your post script, instead of pride and stubbornness, replace your current PS with God’s PS, peace and surrender.

Make peace with God and peace with pursue you.

Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee. Job 22:21 King James Version (KJV)

Surrender and wait for the Lord. This may be one of the most difficult thing to do. We want to act now. We want results now. But, when we react immediately and ponder the consequences later, things don’t always work out. Surrender!

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. ⁸ Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Psalm 37:7-8 King James Version (KJV)

God wrote the letter of our lives before we were formed. Pray daily to keep His PS in our lives.