Walk in God's Order

He, who would walk with God, must walk in God's order. God not only requires us to obey and serve him; but to obey and serve him in his own time and way. In the eye of God voluntary disobedience in the manner of the thing, is the same as disobedience in the thing itself. If therefore in order to walk with God, we must walk in God's order and must operate with him in his own time and way, it will be necessary for us to subdue our natural eagerness and impetuosity of spirit.

Again, this doctrine is totally opposed to the indulgence of an inactive and sluggish spirit. He, who is seriously disposed to meet every movement of God's providence in the fulfillment of every known duty, will find no time, to be idly and uselessly thrown away. Every moment, as it comes, brings with it its appropriate instructions, and calls for its appropriate duties. It does not always call for outward action; but it calls for something to be done. It does not always, nor does it ever, call for a feverish and unreflecting excitement; but on the other hand, it never approves a listless and unprofitable inactivity. Nevertheless every moment brings its duty, although not always to be fulfilled in the same manner. That duty may be outward action: or it may be inward retirement and conversation with God. It may relate to the improvement of others; or it may have relation to the instruction and improvement of ourselves. It may call us to open and aggressive assaults upon the strong holds of sin; or to the secrecy of the closet and the sacredness of private supplication.

— edited from The Interior of Hidden Life (2nd edition, 1844) Part 3, Chapter 2.

Outward Actions May Remain the Same

It is important to remember, that the existence of holiness in the heart does not necessarily alter the manner of action, although it does the principle of action. The farmer and the mechanic plough their fields and smite their anvils as they did before; and if they are estimated by the outward action and the outward appearance merely, they are the same men in many respects as they ever were. But the difference internally, as it reveals itself to the eye of God who searcheth the heart, is as great as that between sin and holiness, between heaven and hell.

— Religious Maxims (1846) CII.

The Inward Before the Outward

It  is a most dangerous mistake to suppose that we can compensate, by exterior acts, however important they may be, for a want of interior devotion.  Men may even minister at the altar, with all the outward eloquence of a Massillon, and yet with hearts full of unbelief. A want of a right or perfect state of the outward action may expose us to the condemnation of men; but an imperfection of the inward or spiritual action exposes us to the condemnation of God. If we can please both God and men, it is well; but above all things, let us not fail to please God, who, in opposition to the course which men usually take, regards the inward principle much more than the mere outward development of it.

— Religious Maxims (1846) LXVI.