My Dear Friend,

Daniel was a man of extraordinary devotion and discipline. His heart was wholly abandoned to God and his life wholly trained for maximum usefulness.

So rapt with devotion for Yahweh was Daniel that he was ready to lay down his life for Him (Daniel 1, 6). And he was so disciplined that he prayed and gave thanks to God three times a day, whether in prosperity or adversity (Daniel 6:10).

Let us examine ourselves to learn the true state of our devotion and discipline. Honesty is our only policy here and spiritual growth our only purpose.

Are we, like the Ephesians, saved but cold? Faithful in our service but lacking passion for Christ - our "first love" - in our hearts? (See Revelation 2:4.) Then let us surrender afresh, confess our sinful lack of love, and ask God to rekindle our devotional fires - and then put ourselves in the position for Him to do so by drawing near Him to patiently read His Word, commune with Him in prayer, and worship and praise Him with a grateful attitude … until His Spirit relights ours.

Or are we, like so many in our generation, devoted but undisciplined? Genuine love for Christ stirs within our hearts whenever we see His goodness and blessings in our lives, or hear beautiful Christian songs or timely biblical messages that we recognize speak personally to us. Yet, despite these repeated stirrings, we remain woefully irregular in our spiritual disciplines.

We pray, but only when forced to by adversity - not at regular periods daily or in scheduled prayer meetings. We worship, but only at church weekly, not at home daily. We serve, but only seasonally, not steadily.

We read the Bible a little, but never faithfully pursue a steady course of biblical studies all the way through to the end. We fast, but very rarely. We give a small offering to God's work here or there, but rarely tithe and never give steadily or sacrificially. What's wrong with us?

We've never disciplined ourselves, as Daniel did! We're saved but slothful, inspired but irregular, touched by God but not rooted in His ways. Today is the day for us to become devoted, disciplined followers of our devoted, disciplined Lord after the pattern of His devoted, disciplined prophet, Daniel. Fully committed. Habitual in seeking. Steady in service. Unwavering in adversity, unrelaxed in prosperity. Steady as a rock, regular as a clock.

True Christianity requires a glowing heart of devotion, refueled and reheated daily at Jesus' feet. Mere ashes won't do. But true Christianity also requires that, after receiving Jesus' nature and Spirit by God's grace, we respond with our works, setting every area of our lives in God's order.

Indeed, laziness has never built anything successful and Christ will never use lazy Christians to build His kingdom. But what wonders will He work, what exploits, what earth-shaking miracles, what testimonies, what vast harvests, what reenactments of The Acts, if He has a church full of Daniels to work with?

May Christ touch us and speak to us as we read these words, and may His Spirit bear witness and plainly reveal the response He desires from us. And may we respond! "Whatever He says unto you, do it" (John 2:5)!

And may we become living proof of this biblical equation: Devotion plus discipline = Daniel!

Disciplining my devotion,

Greg Hinnant
Greg Hinnant Ministries