What do you do when a mysterious hand appears during your party and starts writing on the wall something that you don’t understand? Call the guy with a good testimony. Daniel was known for some things: an excellent spirit, knowledge, understanding, interpretation of dreams, showing of hard sentences, dissolving of doubts, having the Holy Spirit in him, and having light in him. When Belshazzar made the worst choice of his reign by defiling the gold and silver vessels from the temple of God, God sent him a message of his definite destruction. The king despaired when none of Babylon’s wisest men could discern the message. Then his wife told him of Daniel. Belshazzar called for Daniel and said to him in Daniel 5:14, “I have even heard of thee…” and then again in verse 16, “I have heard of thee…” Daniel was a great man of God, and he was even known as such to the pagan world. He had a good testimony.
This calls for some self-reflection. It is required of a bishop that he “have a good report of them which are without” (1 Timothy 3:7). Deacons, “likewise” (1 Timothy 3:8), are to be “men of honest report” (Acts 6:3). So as a man in the ministry, yes, I must have a good testimony. But just as Christian, we all need to. Proverbs 22:1 says, “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.” In Ecclesiastes 7:1 it says, “A good name is better than precious ointment…”
What are you known for?
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