Christian Tract Outreach

“The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.”

We as Christians rightly place our faith in God’s Word, recorded in the bible, and shown to us in Christ Jesus, as being of paramount importance in our relationship with him, often reminding ourselves of the words of Eph 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not because of works, lest anyone should boast”. Yet we can so easily forget the equally important fact that faith is a doorway which is meant to lead us into an intimate relationship with our God. A doorway we can both enter through, and exit by, in our walk with the Lord. Jesus said of himself, “I am the door; if anyone enters by me he will go in and out and find pasture.”

This entering in and going out is what our verse of the week is all about in our everyday lives as we walk with our God. We enter in and stand firm on the truth of what God says he has done in Christ Jesus. Then we “take action” as we are directed to in Eph 2:10; which we often seem to neglect mentioning; where we are told there that “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which he has prepared beforehand for us to walk in”. This is the “taking action” of Daniel 11:32 for us today.

The doorway of faith in Jesus was designed to bring us into this most intimate of relationships with our God, a relationship based on our day by day experience of his word in action in our lives. The apostle Peter expressed this perfectly when he said in John 6:68-19 “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” How did he and the other disciples come to know this truth but by their experience of walking with him day by day, listening to every word which he spoke as he revealed himself to them. How essential it is for us to follow their example.

Mind you, if we are to have our verse of the week, Daniel 11:32, to become a reality for us, then it is of the utmost importance that we remember that this “knowing” which Peter speaks of, most certainly is not just an knowing or understand in our minds, but is in fact an intimacy of knowing which can only be compared to that of the knowing which takes place when a man and woman are joined before God in a loving marriage relationship, and who then consummate that joining together as God intended.

This is what the word of God is saying to us in Eph 5:31-32, “A man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a profound mystery, and I am saying it refers to Christ and his church.” Now while the apostle Paul describes this as “a profound mystery”, yet for those of us who have, by our God’s grace, experienced the depths of intimacy and knowing which can exist between a husband and wife, this is no great mystery.

So, whether it be in relation to right now, or to the time spoken of by the prophet Daniel, it is essential that we “stand firm and take action” by our faithful obedience to the commands laid down for us in Matt 22:37, John 13:34-35 & Acts 1:8.