Delulu

“Do you think Satan knows he is doomed, or do you think he is delusional enough to believe that he can actually defeat God?” I asked my daughter.

“Delulu,” she said, “He is definitely delulu.”

“You know, I think you are right. He is obviously completely out of touch with reality. For someone who was in Lucifer's position to turn away from Almighty God and think he can defeat Him, he has to be a little cuckoo.”

“Look what it says about Lucifer in Ezekiel 28:13-15, 'Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God.'"

“What does all that mean, mama?”

“Well, babe, it means that Lucifer was a big deal. You know the angels that surround the throne of God singing?”

“Holy, holy, holy!” she sang. “The cherubim!”

“Yes, the cherubim. Lucifer was not just any ordinary cherub; he was the anointed cherub, a position of honor, the head cherub in charge, and on top of that, he was beautiful, arrayed in all types of beautiful gems and stones. His body was even thought to be a musical instrument. Lucifer was a radiant creature, but to no credit of his own. All that he had, the beauty, the position, the musical talent, the wisdom, all of it came from God. God established Lucifer.

“Wow.”

“But look what it says right after describing Lucifer in all his excellence: 'You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you' (15). Lucifer was perfect because everything God creates is perfect, but then there was something found in him that made him imperfect.”

“Well, that kind of does not make sense. How can something be perfect, then not be perfect?”

“Easy. Decision. Choice. Everything God makes is good and perfect, but He also gives everyone free will or the ability to make a choice (Genesis 1:31). Think of Adam and Eve, two perfect people with a perfect design for their lives. God set them up pretty; all they had to do was be obedient, and they would have lived footloose and fancy free. But they had a choice, and they chose to disobey, so that perfection was tainted, and that perfect design God had for their lives was negatively impacted when they fell into sin” (Genesis 3).

“Ok, but it says something was found in him. What? What was found in Lucifer that made him no longer perfect?”

“Good question. This guy had it all, and sometimes when we have everything, we start to think a little too much of ourselves. Old folks would say that he got a little too big for his britches. Remember, the scripture says that God made Lucifer great; Lucifer had nothing to do with his own splendor, but he got what we would call a big head and started to think that because of his beauty and wisdom, he could be like God. Pride. That is what was found in Lucifer: pride.”

My daughter is seven years old, she is a beautiful girl with genius and great talent, but you will never hear me tell her that I am proud of her. Her entire life, I have given her lots of accolades for any accomplishment, great or small. I used to keep an applause track on my phone to play whenever she did something successfully. I would shout words of affirmation at her and tell her how proud I was, but one day, it was brought to my attention that expressing pride in something or someone is not the way. Our culture, the world, encourages pride, even celebrates it, but then I realized that Jesus Christ accomplished the greatest act in the history of mankind on the cross, and God never said He was proud of Jesus.

“And lo a voice from heaven, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:17). God said He was pleased with Jesus, not proud. Scripture says that “God despises the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Knowing this, I could not in good conscience tell my daughter I was proud of her again, so I stopped. I learned to tell her that I am very pleased. I do not judge people who use that phrase, but there is no such thing as good pride, and when you know better, you do better.

“What a loser!”  

“Hey, watch it!”

“Not you, Mama, Lucifer.”

“Oh, yeah, I know, talk about fumbling the ball. Lucifer was an incredible, exalted being, established by God Himself, and he allowed pride to ruin it all. Definitely a loser.”

God loves us. He makes everything beautiful in His time (Ecclesiastes 3:11). He will establish you; He will even exalt you above others, but do not be delulu, apart from God, you can do nothing (John 15:5). Pride will cause you to think more of yourself than you should. There is no such thing as good pride. Pride is a sin that can turn a beautiful creature into a monster.