This is why I'm inspired to keep blogging ( and praying ):
"I. Those who know God have great energy for God.
In one of the prophetic chapters of Daniel we read: 'the people who know their God shall be strong, and do exploits' ( 11:32). RSV renders thus: 'the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.'
In the context, this statement is introduced by 'but' and set in contrast to the activity of the 'vile person' ( verse 21 ) who sets up 'the abomination that maketh desolate,' and corrupts by smooth and flattering talk those whose loyalty to God's covenant has failed ( verse 31-32 ).
This shows us that action taken by those who know God is their 'reaction' to the anti-God trends which they see operating around them. While their God is being defiled or disregarded, they cannot rest; they feel they must do something; the dishonor done to God's name goads them into action.
This is exactly what we see happening in the narrative chapters of Daniel, where we are told of the 'exploits' of Daniel and his three friends. They were men who knew God, and who in consequence felt compelled from time to time actively to stand out against the conventions and dictates of irreligion and false religion.
Daniel in particular appears as one who would not let a situation of that sort slide, but felt bound openly to challenge it. Rather than risk possible ritual defilement through eating palace food, he insisted on a vegetarian diet, to consternation of the prince of the eunuchs ( 1:8-16 ).
When Nebuchadnezzar suspended the practice of prayer for a month, on pain of death, Daniel not merely went on praying three times a day, but did so in front of an open window, so that everyone might see what he was doing. ( 6:10 f. ).
One recalls Bishop Ryle leaning forward in his stall at St. Paul's Cathedral so that everyone might see that he did not turn east for the Creed! Such gestures must not be misunderstood. It is not that Daniel, or for that matter Bishop Ryle, was an awkward, cross-grained fellow who luxuriated in rebellion and could only be happy when he was squarely 'agin' the government.
It is simply that those who know their God are sensitive to situations in which God's truth and honor are being directly or tacitly jeopardized, and rather than let the matter go by default will force the issue on men's attention and seek thereby to compel a change of heart about it - even at personal risk.
Nor does this energy for God stop short with public gestures. Indeed, it does not start there.
Men who know their God are before anything else men who pray, and the first point where their zeal and energy for God's glory come to expression is in their prayers.
In Daniel 9 we read how, when the prophet 'understood by the books' that foretold time of Israel's captivity was drawing to to an end, and when at the same time he realized that the nation's sin was still such as to provoke God to judgment rather than mercy, he set himself to seek God 'by prayer and supplication, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes' ( verse 3 ), and prayed for the restoring of Jerusalem with a vehemence and passion and agony of spirit to which most of us are complete strangers.
Yet the invariable fruit of true knowledge of God is energy to pray for God's cause - energy, indeed, which can only find an outlet and a relief of inner tension when channelled into such prayer - and the more knowledge, the more energy!
By this way test ourselves.
Perhaps we are not in a position to make public gestures against ungodliness and apostasy. Perhaps we are old, or ill, or otherwise limited by our physical situation. But we can all pray about the ungodliness and apostasy which we see in everyday life all around us. If, however, there is in us little energy for such prayer, and little consequent practice of it, this is a sure sign that as yet we scarcely know our God."
"Knowing God" J.I. Packer, 1973, InterVarsity Press, ( pages 23-24 )
“Doctrine is useless if it is not accompanied by a holy life. It is worse than useless; it does positive harm. Something of ‘the image of Christ’ must be seen and observed by others in our private life, and habits, and character, and doings.” ( Bishop J.C. Ryle )
