Daily Devotional For Friday, September 4, 2026
Good morning Southside! Thank you for taking the time to join us with these daily devotional readings. We are continuing our discussion from yesterday in Daniel 4. Please read Daniel 4 again. We looked yesterday at this issue of pride and today we are going to look at it again. We saw yesterday that Daniel was willing to be brutally honest with King Nebuchadnezzar about God’s punishment to him for his pride. He would go from being the most powerful king to being out of his mind eating grass in fields like cattle, and then after his repentance, restored through his humility.
Here’s a question for all of us: when you see someone you know and love making wrong decisions that could ruin their life and the lives of others, do you intervene? Do you speak up? Do you confront them and tell the truth? Or, do you think, “Well, it is really none of my business. Their life is their life to live as they choose, even if those choices destroy them. If I speak up, they will only get mad and things will go south quickly between us.” I would like to share with you quote from Old Testament scholar Daniel Helm:
“We must be willing to share the bad news with people that they are out of sorts with God, even as our heart breaks for them while saying it. We must be willing to tell others that God is not pleased with this pride—the human tendency to push Him aside, and think that we are the measure of all things. We must be willing to say why God works against us—so that we might one day know that he rules, and not us. Finally, we must be ready to call for repentance and offer hope. Daniel did all of that. And then the text stops. We are not told what the king said on that day. In fact, the verses that follow take the reader into the future, to at least one year later, and then seven periods of time beyond. Clearly, God didn’t feel any need for us to know how this private witness was received. He wanted us simply to see that it was given.… Daniel didn’t shirk from speaking God’s word into the life of the most powerful man in the world. In doing so, he has provided us with an example of the backbone needed to be faithful when our opportunity comes. And come it will, for God is in the business of revealing himself to prominent, powerful people” Source, Daniel Helm. Daniel for You, p. 78)
Pride is the worst sin because it convinces us to have an unrealistic high view of ourselves and a low view of others. Like a hidden tumor in our liver or pancreas, we can be blind to it . . . until it is too late. Pride causes us to have such a high view of ourselves and what is sad, it blinds us to our own opinion of ourselves. We don’t see it. We can’t see it while others see it all too clearly. We all have good reasons to justify it, rationalize it, and justify it. This is why God warns us about the human heart in Jeremiah 17:9, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” (NLT). God warns us again about the fickleness of the heart in Proverbs 4:23, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” (NLT).
This is why as brothers and sisters in Christ we must be willing to confront regardless of the risks because not speaking/confronting risks way too much that may not ever be undone. Ephesians 4:14a says, “Instead, we will speak the truth in love . . . “ (NLT). As we saw yesterday, Daniel got no pleasure in interrupting Nebuchadnezzar's troubling dream, but he did it overcoming his fears, apprehensions and possible death. I am reminded of a quote by Christian philosopher Blaise Pascal, “Do you wish people to think well of you? Don’t speak well of yourself” (Source: Blaise Pascal, Pensees, 1670). Look at Proverbs 17:17, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity” (NIV).
We must and should speak up. When we learn or see a Christian going down the wrong path, we must set aside our fears to confront. If they get mad and blow up and tell you where to go, just remind them that is where you are trying to keep them from going and experiencing.
Look at Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. (10) If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. (11) Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? (12) A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken” (NLT).
Failing to speak up and confront leads to unbearable regrets later. It is a burden that is heavier than the fear of not confronting only later to see that person self-destruct. Nebuchadnezzar self-destructed due to his pride. And what is true of him is true of us all. Our pride convinces us we know what is best, right and okay for our lives than the Lord. Pride convinces us that we are not harming anyone. Pride convinces us that it is our life to live as we choose. But it is also our pride that causes us to lose our life. Pride says, “I am god over my own life.” To such people, God says to them what He said to the man who built bigger barns for himself in Luke 12:20, “But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’” (NLT).
Reflection Assignment: Who is it you know you need to confront in a loving way but you have been putting it off for all kinds of reasons? Ask the Lord to show you the right time to do this, the attitude and words to use and then do it. Which do you prefer to live with most: the regret of not speaking up and they destroy themselves or the fear you pushed through no matter their response?
Scripture To Meditate On: 1 John 3:18, “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” (NIV).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, help me overcome my fear of their reaction if I confront so I do not have to live with the fear of regret if I do not confront. I ask that You prepare the soil of their heart to hear as well as the soil of my heart to share in the way You desire. I pray for victory for them and praise to You. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly