Self will, self exaltation and self indulgence will eventually place the proud one in the prison of their own minds. To maintain their self proclaimed specialness, the arrogant person must continually day dream grandiosity to maintain their euphoric sense of self importance. They must squash any attempt on the part of others to bring them back to reality and their true state of sinfulness. Not only do they not listen to those around them, they refuse to listen to God, the more they are chastised the harder their heart becomes and the more devious their ploy to ruin those who try to help them.
I can't think of a prison more devastating and stressful than the one of pride, the same pride that afforded the devil loss of status in heaven and eventual hell forever.
Satan wanted to be worshiped and elevated as above everyone and everything, he wanted to be above God, he became enraged when he could not have it. His aim was to destroy everything God loved in revenge against God.
Ezekiel 28:17
"Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you."
The devil had everything but was not satisfied with it, he had to be the most and the best. His pride blinded his eyes to what he had in order to have what he shouldn't want.
Isaiah 14:12-15
"(12) "How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
(13) For you have said in your heart:
'I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
(14) I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.'
(15) Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit."
The longer the stubborn heart defends their sin, the harder their heart becomes, until at some point there is no opportunity to become anything else.
2 Kings 17:14
"However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God."
Jeremiah 7:24
"Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward."
The only solution is to repent from stubbornness while there is still time to see the truth and realize their need for Christ.
Christ is the answer, no other answer will do, not trying harder, not pretending through outer actions and no denial of what they are will help, they must admit, confess and ask to be cleansed by Christ. There is no other answer than this.
