"Self-preservation"

"For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their own pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak." (Psalms 59:12) Before you go and think this is about being selfish or having a survival instinct, it's totally not; it's about one of the biggest barriers between being stuck in bondage and true deliverance, pride! Not just the kind of pride that thinks, I can do this on my own; no, this is the kind of pride that refuses to let go of self; that kind of pride that does not want to be fixed, because being fixed would mean changing who I am, and that I cannot tolerate or allow; even to the point lying about who I really am, I am determined to preserve this sinful nature. If that is you, then listen up; if that is not you, then listen very closely! I say that only because we are all sinful creatures, and as long as we remain in these earthen vessels, we will struggle with sin and the things of the flesh, it's just a fact; and if you say that you don't, then you are not being very honest with yourself; and you are especially not being very honest with God. But God needs you to be honest before Him before He can honestly fix you! It's not just a matter of saying, Lord forgive me for my sins, because there are multitudes of sins that we need to be forgiven for, and that kind of blanket request is not going to breakdown the wall of pride. It's a good start though, but God wants to take it to the next level, and the next, and the next, and on and on till eternity. We are never going to be totally fixed until we are safely in glory; until then, we must let go of our selfish pride, and let God do what He does best, transformations! From ashes to beauty, from sinner to saint, from death to life; He takes that which is broken and rotten, and He makes it whole and fresh; but it requires that we be totally honest and transparent before Him! He already knows everything about you, so the only thing holding you back is your pride, because it surely is not a secret...
"So God's rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. So God set another time for entering His rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted: Today when you hear His voice, don't harden your hearts. Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come. So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God's rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall. For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all of creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before His eyes, and He is the one to whom we are accountable." (Hebrews 4:6-13)