BREADCRUMBS OF FAITH 32: Pride, Humility & Restoration

Pride can lead to destruction, but humility before God brings restoration and blessing. This breadcrumb of faith examines the stories of King Nebuchadnezzar and King Saul to illustrate how quickly God can both humble the proud and restore the humble.

• Daniel 4 shows how King Nebuchadnezzar's pride led to his downfall, but his eventual humility led to his restoration
• God can raise us up and bring us down in an instant when we fail to recognize His hand in our success
• King Saul's partial obedience resulted in losing everything, similar to Nebuchadnezzar's experience
• Unlike Job who suffered despite his righteousness, prideful leaders brought unnecessary suffering upon themselves
• The importance of serving God wholeheartedly and not being lukewarm in our faith
• Gratitude is essential - acknowledging that our talents and successes come from God, not our own abilities
• Scripture reminds us: "Not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord"

I pray this message encourages you to give thanks for every good gift and talent God has given you. Remember that everything we have comes by His hands, not by our own might, but only by His Spirit.

Transcript

Podcast Introduction and Welcome

Speaker 1 0:02

Hey, there, you're tuned into another episode of All Things Skin Wellness and Faith, a podcast where you'll learn simple ways to implement skincare and wellness techniques from a holistic approach. On this podcast, we'll explore practical ways to address skin health and overall holistic spiritual well-being, while deepening your faith. I'm your host, natasha Diaz, a licensed holistic esthetician, day spa owner and a faithful believer and follower of Christ, and it's time to get ready to get encouraged and empowered as we dive into To all things skin wellness and faith. Good day unto you. Welcome back to today's episode of Bird Combs of Faith by All Things Skin Wellness and Faith. Natasha here with another weekly episode to bring you some encouragement and some enlightenment over your week.

Daniel Chapter 4: Pride and Humility

Speaker 1 1:10

I want to apologize in advance because, excuse me, my voice has been in and out pretty much, probably because of allergies or I'm not really sure. However, I've been on track lately with my recordings and my uploads to this podcast and I kind of want to keep it that way, especially with the breadcrumbs, since the breadcrumbs are really words of encouragement and I feel like they could be so edifying to you and to build you up that I don't want to let a little mishap like a rough and kind of raspidy voice hold me back from delivering the word of God to you and delivering that message to you. So I'm going to do my best, excuse me, to deliver this to you and to deliver this. Well, I am in the parking lot right now of a store, so please forgive any background noises, any horns beeping that you may hear, but this breadcrumb the Holy Spirit really just gave to me and I want to deliver it while it's fresh in my spirit. So this week we're talking just about pride and humility, which is something that excuse me, I'm sorry, something that we have to deal with a lot, and pretty much the Holy Spirit. As I was driving around and just running some errands today, the Holy Spirit just kind of spoke this to me as I was listening to the Bible app myself and I kind of, as you know, I focused on a couple episodes ago, the book of Daniel, from the point of food and the point of, you know, just consecrating yourself.

Speaker 1 2:50

But I want to speak to you today from another point that is made in Daniel, and it's in Daniel, chapter 4. Again, like I've repeated in the past, this is just a breadcrumb, so while I do encourage you to read the whole chapter of Daniel, chapter four, or even just the whole book of Daniel. It's really not that long. It's a few chapters I believe it's five or six or so but it's a really good read. There are a lot of good points in there, a lot of good things for you to ponder on. And so in Daniel chapter 4, our focus today is, like I said oh, I'm sorry, the voice is rough Our focus today is pride and humility. And just to give you a little bit of a background on what's going on, since I'm not going to read the whole entire chapter to you, not that I would even think that my voice would allow me to is what's going on?

Speaker 1 3:50

Daniel is interpreting a dream. He's interpreting a dream for King Nebuchadnezzar and in the dream it talks about basically some trees and a tree stump that's cut off. And the interpretation of the dream it's just the Lord revealing how you can be mighty and strong. You can be, you know, a man or a woman of value. Excuse me, but at any point in time, if you are prideful, if you think that that's in your own nature, if you think that it's not done by the grace and the hands of God, that at any point in time, it's God that raised you up and God that can essentially chop you down, and so that's what this is talking about in this part of Daniel. So I'm just going to read this to you, bear with me. Like I said, it is verses 36 and 37, and it reads and this is out of a version that I don't usually read, but I'm going to use it today it's the NIRV. My honor and glory were returned to me when my mind became clear again. The glory of my kingdom was given back to me, my advisors and nobles came to me and I was put back on my. So this is Nebuchadnezzar, a king that didn't really believe in Daniel's God. But, as you can see or you can't really see, because, like I said, I didn't read the whole entire chapter After seeing how the interpretation of the dream came through, and the interpretation was basically that the Lord, god, could chop him down immediately, just as quick as he had risen up in his riches and his glory.

Comparing King Saul and Nebuchadnezzar

Speaker 1 6:04

The Lord could quickly remove that from him, and it was said in the interpretation that the Lord would restore him. But as soon as Daniel gave this interpretation to him. But as soon as Daniel gave this interpretation to him. As soon as Daniel told him what the meaning of the dream was, it immediately went into action and he immediately saw that the word of God of truth was true and that God could indeed do what he said in an instant. And then he also saw. On the other hand, on the other side of that is, God could indeed do what he said in an instant, and then he also saw. On the other hand, on the other side of that is, god could restore him just as quickly and God could restore him with twice as much. So you see this a lot in the Bible and a few other kings that had this same type of experience.

Speaker 1 6:51

But the other king that I wanted to reference was in the book of Samuel, and that is King Saul. Now, king Saul also went crazy and King Saul also was pretty much taken out of his mind. And King Saul was a mighty and powerful king. And then, within an instant of who was it? Samuel, who was the prophet of Samuel telling him because you are not obedient to what God has told you to do, because you only obeyed partially, king Saul was reduced and had everything taken away, and this is the same thing that happened with King Nebuchadnezzar.

Humbling Yourself Before God

Speaker 1 7:34

So what I want to stress to you today, and what I want you to kind of focus on, is the importance of honoring God for who he is, the importance of being obedient to God, for as quick as God gave you your riches, or as quick as God is putting you in a position where you can excel, just as quick he can take it away, and we don't want to see that. So let us always be mindful of what God has given us. Let us be thankful. The Bible says pray without ceasing and to pray with thanksgiving. So let us always be mindful that everything that we have is because of the grace and the favor of God. None of these things are in ourselves or in our own might.

Speaker 1 8:23

And Zachariah says not by my might, not by my power, but by the spirit of the living God. And we must always remember that everything that we have, all that we are, it comes upon us and it may feel like it's natural, you may feel like you have this type of confidence. You may feel, you know, like boasting and boasting in your own might. But even Paul talks about that in the New Testament that I may not. I might not boast in myself that he knows that everything that he has is by the hand of God. So one thing I always say is that you want to humble yourself, because if you don't humble yourself, if you walk in pride, you will find that God will quickly reduce you and bring you down to size.

Speaker 1 9:15

Now, god is a good God, he's a restoring God, he's a redeeming God, so he also has the power, just as quick as he brought you down, to lift you back up. But why experience that unnecessarily? I mean, if God has a lesson to teach you and it may not be because of pride it may be a situation like Job. Job did nothing wrong, but yet he was reduced. Satan asked to sift Job and just to see where he stood, just to see if he would speak against God. And Job was a faithful servant. He did not, while Job's situation was a little bit different. Job lost everything he had and, as you can see, job was also restored with more than he had in the beginning. It was a different situation, but it's just to focus on again from that point of view, to just show you how good our God is, how mighty he is.

Speaker 1 10:14

But it is important that we serve him and serve him to the best of our ability, like I spoke about in our last episode, just not being lukewarm with your service unto God, serving him with all that, all your might, all that he has given you.

Closing Encouragement and Gratitude

Speaker 1 10:33

So I'm going to wrap it up for there, because the strain on my voice is a bit much. It may not be the most comfortable thing for you to listen to, my voice, may not be pleasing to your ears, but I pray, in the name of Jesus, that this message hits home. I pray that this message is encouraging and I pray that this message just reminds you, more than anything, to give thanks. To give thanks for every good gift that he's given you, to give thanks for every talent that he has given you, because it is all by his hands, it is not done in our own might, it's only done by his spirit. So I pray that you are blessed, I pray that you are encouraged by this message, and I thank you so much for bearing with me and my rough voice, and I will speak to you and I will see you next time. Bye for now, god bless, and I love you all.