Daily Devotional For Thursday, September 3, 2026
Good morning Southside! Our daily devotional for today comes from a passage in the Book of Daniel. I love to read through the Bible every year and this year, I am reading the Bible using the One Year Chronological Bible. This Bible puts all the historical events in the chronological order they occurred. This way as you read through the Bible you get a sense of how God was working in His people’s lives from Genesis all the way down through Revelation. Our reading for today involves a dream King Nebuchadnezzar had that was so disturbing that he asked all his magicians and dream interpreters to tell him what it meant. Eventually, he brought in Daniel (Beltshazzar – his Babylonian name which was the name of a Babylonian god) to interpret the dream for him.
In biblical times, when someone had a disturbing dream, people believed their god (or gods or God) was speaking to them. We see this with Pharaoh in Egypt and Joseph. Our devotional comes from Daniel 4. We are not going to look at the whole chapter but paraphrase and focus on the main point of this story, but I would encourage you to click the link and read all of Daniel 4 yourself. To help us get there, I would like to set the stage with a quote from former atheist turned Christian apologist C.S. Lewis:
“There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which everyone loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time I have very seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy to others. There is no fault that makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.
The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility .… According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind” (Source: C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, pp. 121–22)
Pride was the main sin of King Nebuchadnezzar and God was about to humble him. This king had conquered much of the Mid East, including all of Israel. He had totally devastated Jerusalem, the wall around it, the Temple – taking the items in it as his personal trophies, slaughtered many of the people and brought thousands of Israelis back to Babylon to be slaves in his kingdom. All of this he patted himself on the back for and did not give God any of the credit even though it was God who helped Nebuchadnezzar to do this.
God hates pride because first, it brought sin into the world. Second, pride challenges God’s sovereignty and will. Third, it causes us to believe we are a god unto ourselves. This mighty king was about to go from being the ruler of the world to eating grass like an animal. So, he asked Daniel to tell him the meaning of this disturbing dream. Nebuchadnezzar did not want a “yes” man to agree with his own interpretation of the dream; he needed a “truth” man. He wanted someone to speak the truth to him no matter how painful it was. Daniel had already spent many years with the king and I think he genuinely cared for this king (Dan. 4:19). I am reminded of Psalms 10:4, “The wicked are too proud to seek God. They seem to think that God is dead” (NLT). God used a way to remind Nebuchadnezzar He was still very much alive and in control.
Up to this point, Nebuchadnezzar had been looking down at all his accomplishments, awards, and arrogantly thinking it was all by his hand. He had refused to look up. C.S. Lewis puts it this way: “A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you” (Source: C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 124).
All of us are guilty of looking down on others and pointing out the faults in others rather than seeing ourselves as prideful, arrogant and a better judge of people than the Lord. Nebuchadnezzar was about to experience the full force of Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall” (NLT). Daniel held nothing back from King Nebuchadnezzar even though it pained him to tell the king this. In 1697, French Roman Catholic Bishop François Fénelon wrote these words, “Nothing will make us so tender to the faults of others, as, by self-examination, thoroughly to know our own” (Source: François Fénelon, The Inner Life, 1697).
Reflection Assignment: Ask someone you trust to be honest with you where you are prideful, arrogant, stubborn, and sinful. Commit beforehand not to get angry or defensive with that person. Receive. Repent. Resolve. Restore.
Scripture To Meditate On: Proverbs 16:5, “The Lord detests the proud; they will surely be punished” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, pride is an ugly demon that possesses me at times. I feel its obsession and progression in my heart. My deep desire is that when You look at me,You would see less of me and more of You. Please forgive me when I look down on others rather than looking up to You. Please remove pride in me and replace it with praise of You. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly