[Darris McNeely] Have you ever had to go to someone who is your supervisor, your boss, someone who's over you in authority of work, and whatever it might be, and point out to them where they may be wrong, a mistake that they have made, how they could do better? But you're the one that has to go into their office. You have to make the phone call. You have to do what is called, speak truth to power. Speak truth to power.

Sometimes in our lives, we have to do that. There's an example in the book of Daniel, where the Prophet Daniel had to speak truth to power. The power was King Nebuchadnezzar, the potentate, the dictator that could have cut his head off, as Daniel walked into his office, into his throne room, to point out to him a problem that he had. In Daniel 4:27, there's a statement that Daniel makes to the king after he interprets a dream that the king has had. And Daniel gives him the interpretation, that's going to lead to some rather interesting developments for the king. Daniel is saying to him, "You don't have to see this happen. We can avoid this problem." And here's what he says in Daniel 4:27. "Therefore, oh, King," Daniel says, "Let my advice be acceptable to you. Break off your sins by being righteous and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity." Daniel was taking his life into his hands by speaking truth to the power of Nebuchadnezzar and telling him to, "Break off your sins, change your habits, do something different. God's going to judge you otherwise, and you can avoid that." Daniel was in a grave situation by that. The story goes on that Nebuchadnezzar eventually had to suffer the consequences of his actions.

Now, he spoke truth to power. Sometimes we may have to do that in situations in our life that we come up against. How we do it, when we do it, the manner in which we go to our boss or supervisor, someone in authority over us and point out, the way the meeting was handled, the decision that's been made, the statement that was made, the outburst of anger, whatever it might be, can lead to some problems of morale, a lack of respect, division, whatever it might be in the situation. And you will have to speak truth to power. You wanna be careful. Make sure your attitude is right. Make sure that you use the language that is going to make that critical message of the truth receptive to those that do have the authority to either blow up and make something worse or, hopefully, take your advice, take your gentle prodding and pointing out that there's a problem and correct it for the good of everybody.

Speaking truth to power is something that we have to do every once in a while. The way we do it, the manner that we do, can be critical. Daniel had to do it. Pray that God gives you the wisdom. Speak truth to power, should you ever come to that point and do it in a godly way that produces good results.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.