Status Updates From ESV Prayer Journal: 30 Days...

" We must remember that we aren't submitting to the will of a cruel or indifferent God. We are accepting the plans of loving and merciful father, who is always and only good."

1 Pet. 5:6; Ex. 3:19-20 "There is such comfort to be found here. When we submit to God's rule in our lives, we do so under his mighty hand, the hand that saved his people from oppression and slavery in Egypt and from sin and death at the cross. It is in this knowledge that we are able to surrender our lives and our wills humbly to him, even when it hurts."

"Robert Leighton, a bishop and theologian who lived in the 1600s, put it this way...'Sin has upset everything. All the approaches people make to God are warped, as are their relationships to each other, until a new Spirit comes in to rectify this. This is exactly what this particular grace of humility does, which the apostle here [in 1-2 Peter] recommends.'"

"Humility has always been misunderstood as a sign of weakness, a flaw that limits a person's potential and sets him or her up for failure. But God says clearly that it is the only way to a right relationship with him and with others."

"When the Bible instructs us to fear the Lord, it doesn't mean that we should live in terror of an angry God, eager to punish us as soon as we make a mistake. Nor does it mean that we should fear final judgment when Jesus returns. Our sins are completely covered by our Savior...What, then, does it mean to fear the Lord? It means that we recognize him for who he is and we respond accordingly."-Week 3•Day 1

The main weapon to use against pride, and in its conquest and in gaining humility, is certainly prayer.