Christian Devotional – June 17, 2026

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 26

Delivering bad news. Read Daniel 4:19.

Have you ever had to deliver bad news before? Depending upon who you’re delivering it to, you may change your approach in different points. Some people respond better to bad news than other people. However, if you find yourself leading through challenging circumstances, then you probably have a leader who doesn’t necessarily respond well to bad news.

The king had historically not responded well to bad news and Daniel has been given the interpretation of his dream. Daniel knows the king is not going to like the interpretation. It’s not favorable to him, and it will be tough for him to accept. It does seem through this verse that Daniel has a good relationship with the king. He does seem to genuinely care about the king. He desires to see the king do well and succeed. And as a result, he pleads with the king right from the very beginning to understand that this will be a difficult interpretation. The King is not going to like it.

When we’re delivering bad news to people who have historically not responded well, it doesn’t help anything to try to sugarcoat the bad news, sometimes it does help to get to the bottom line quickly. Daniel went straight to the fact that. Yes, this was going to be bad news. And he wished it wasn’t, Daniel wasn’t going to lie to the king. Daniel wasn’t going to make up something to tell the king. Daniel was going to tell the king the truth, but he wanted the king to understand that the king might not like, what the message is. Having that level of honesty with peeople can be really challenging. But it does us no good if we misrepresent ourselves or our message to other people.

Are we sharing the message of Jesus Christ with compassion and through relationship without sugarcoating or watering down the impact of the message? Make sure that describes you today.

Watch the video devotional here: https://youtu.be/eowAwx1PZu4