Christian Devotional – June 25, 2026

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 33

Praising the Creator or the creation? Read Daniel 5:1-4.

It can be easy to get mixed up as leaders. We can get so focused on the things that we are doing that. We end up missing the focus and get focused on all the wrong things. Chronologically, Daniel chapter 5 takes place quite a bit after Daniel chapter 4. King Nebuchadnezzar’s son is now on the throne. We quickly see that he has inherited his father’s prideful attitude, but not his father’s acknowledgment of the one true God. This new king loves wealth and grandeur and parties, and at the start of chapter 5, he is in full display mode. He is having a lavish party. Just like his father, he starts to boast by showing off the wealth that he has, which came from the Temple of God in Jerusalem.

Instead of taking this opportunity to praise the God that those gold and silver dishes had been designed for, they praised the creation themselves: the gold, the silver. It can be so easy to get focused on the wrong things. If we aren’t specifically intentional about praising the Creator himself, we can get overly focused on worshipping the creation instead. God is worthy of all praise. There’s nothing we have that is greater. Are we recognizing the creation, or are we lavishing praise on the creator?

Watch the video devotional here: https://youtu.be/DpD_sd76kGY