Hebrews 10:23 “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. “ I THESSALONIANS 5:24 “24 Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” COMMENTS: A young girl waiting for her father to pick her up after finishing swimming practice, which ended at 8PM. All the other swimmers were gone and still she waiting in the cold and dark. But she trusted her father and knew he would show up. When he did and apologized, he explained he had to fix a flat tire on the way, which was why he was late. She knew him and knew he would not forget her. The young girl’s faith in her father was strong, making a difference in the level of patience waiting for him to fill his promise. When he did show up, she was able to greet him with open hears and not ears deaf due to anger. She greeted him as her father instead of with words of anger. The rest of the evening was much better than it would have been. The level of faith we have in God will determine our level of patience as we wait for Him to fulfill His promises to us too. Isaiah 40:31 “ 31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” God will renew His strength in us as we wait and as we remain faithful to Him while waiting. He works in His time and in His way. Time will prove His time is perfect, but at the time it may not seem so to us. That is why faith is so important so as not to spoil the joy of seeing His timing fulfilled. I am reminded of the story in scripture of Daniel praying for 21 days without an answer. Daniel 9 is a wonderful prayer Daniel prayed resulting in Gabriel coming in response. I encourage you to read and prayerfully reflect on this passage. But then recorded in Daniel 10, Daniel again prayed for 21 days without an answer. The response finally came when Michael finally visited Daniel, who explained he had battled the “Prince of Persia” for 21 days. Story is recorded in Daniel 10. The revelation came to Daniel and his 21 days of patiently continuing to pray and trusting God even during delay was rewarded. Instead of greeting Michael with bitterness and anger, Daniel greeting Him with an open spirit ready to receive God’s message. Listen to the words Michael said to Daniel recorded in Daniel 10:11-13: “11 He said, “Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you.” And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling.12 Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. 14 Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.” The only other person greeting with the honor of being “highly esteemed by God” was Mary, the mother of Christ when Gabriel gave her that news. Daniel was faithful and prepared to receive. Daniel had endured the entire 70 year judgment on Israel being captive to Babylon and now Medo-Persia empire. He had remained faithful, God using him to keep guide his people back to God during captivity as well as many in his conquerors – even Nebuchadnezzar. He would not live to see his homeland but would live to see some return and would soon see his permanent home with his Messiah to greet him. What stories await us that are not recorded in scripture. Stories we will hear from Daniel himself. But oh how many stories Christ is awaiting to share with us. Stories not recorded in scripture nor the background behind those stories. Stories of redemption that rippled from one generation to another. Stories of long ago that impacted our lives and lives of those after us. Stories of God’s perfect timing and God’s perfect plan fulfilled. Stories not revealed now because God wants our obedience from faith and personal choice. We become strong in our faith more from adversity and trial and not from prosperity and comfort. Prosperity historically made the Israelites weak and more vulverable to pagan idolatry and sin. They enjoyed and wanted prosperity more, as do we, but the risks to them during times of prosperity were greater. With prosperity also came greater responsibility to share excess with others in need. How are you using prosperous times. God will take prosperity if we do not use it wisely. He loves us too much to not allow adversity to strengthen us too and to guide us closer to Himself. He is not mean but loving, as a wise parent, to do so. So how do we respond during times when God seems so far away? How prepared will we be to greet Him when He does show up and when His answer does come. It just might be He is fighting a greater battle on our behalf without our knowledge so we can receive His answer fully. Let’s decide to choose CONFIDENT HOPE INSTEAD OF WISHFUL HOPE CONTROLLING OUR CHOICES AND EMOTIONS AND ACTIONS AND EVEN OUR THOUGHTS FROM TODAY FORWARD. GOD IS FAITHFUL BECAUSE HE LOVES US LIKE NONE OTHER!!
Published by donsdevotions
Don McDaniel - Who am I?
Hello everyone and welcome to my devotional journal blog. In order to get acquainted and help you get to know me a bit better before considering following my blog, let me give you some background. I am a 74-year-old male and a retired engineer. I worked for a major supplier of underground mining equipment for nearly 40 years before retiring in 2012. Arlene and I have been happily married since April 1978 and have two grown – married children, one granddaughter and 2 step grandsons. I joined the local United Methodist church at age 12 after accepting Christ as my Savior at age 10 during revival services in that same church in 1961, so I have been a “Born Again” Christian all my teen years and adult life. Christ has helped and guided me all that time. He guided me in choosing my wife and life’s career. My life journey has included regrets and failures, but God has picked me up and protected and spared me from life threatening consequences and dangers more times than I can recall or count. But many I do recall and encourage and motivate me to trust and follow Christ with more passion than ever.
Christmas 2011 our daughter gave Arlene and I each a devotional journal. Journals were books with devotion for each day and space to give personal impressions and thoughts related to each devotion. Her desire was to have a lasting legacy she could refer back to and share with her children and grandchildren especially after we are gone. I was touched by that gesture. My parents and Arlene’s were devout Christians, so we would have greatly treasured having that from them, so we felt a sense of urgency to honor her request. I finished my journal first and returned it to our daughter the following Christmas. I’m glad I did it then because Parkinson’s has caused my hand writing to deteriorate since then. The exercise was such a blessing for me. Discipline of keeping journal helped me gain a deeper walk with Christ and greater discipline in honoring my time of prayer and devotion with Him each day. So, I decided to continue the practice but since I could not find a paper journal I liked, I decided to create my own. I had already been receiving electronic devotions by email every day from several sources, my favorite being “Turning Point” from Dr. David Jeremiah. What I decided to do was to include devotional scripture but add my own thoughts and comments only so there would be no issue of copyright infringement. Creating and maintaining journal by computer also addressed my deteriorating handwriting ability. I started an electronic devotion journal January 1, 2013 and have been faithful to that practice every day since. I prayed about method and level of distribution. My initial intent was to only share it with my two children by email, but quickly discovered others in my family, my church, and friends from work (both retired and still working) who knew me and wanted to be included in distribution when they learned what I was doing. I now distribute by email my daily journal at the beginning of each month to over 150 friends and relatives. God has richly blessed and encouraged me.
I am concerned with the state of our church and nation, and world for that matter, believing we are living in the end times the prophets of old and Christ have talked about in scripture, so time is short. I desire to be true to my Savior and a witness to help others come to a saving knowledge of Him and equipped to share His Good News too. If my journal can encourage and help others, I believe God wants me to share it. I struggled, for a time at first, because I know many others keep similar journals but only for their own edification and do not want to share them because they are private.
However, Christ has stirred my heart to share it as a witness tool.
Our son and daughter have a long-time friend who grew up with them who we also befriended nearly 25 years ago. He had a lot of family problems, so would gravitate to our family as a refuge and eventually thought of us as his adopted parents and he as our adopted son. We lost contact with him for some time when he grew up and left home. He traveled around the U.S. and eventually ended up in Ukraine where he resided for next 10 years. He had to return to the US to renew his visa and took opportunity to recommend I begin a blog of my devotions and helped me set it up. He is also an active blogger and has been an email subscriber to my journal for several months, so he has been suggesting I expand my distribution by starting a blog to get broader exposure. After reflection and prayer, I concluded God was in this, so he is helping me set up my blog site. This brief autobiography is my first entry.
He returned to Ukraine, then resided there until circumstanced made him decide to move back to US with his young son. This biography was my first post February 29, 2016 .
I have published 600 posts from 2016-2023 automatically sent to all my Facebook friends, published on WordPress to be accessible to anyone curious or seeking a deeper walk with God. I decided to take a sebatical to prepare for a new chapter. In 2014 I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease which affects patient ability to walk, drive, do physical work, and eventually talk. By mid 2023 it became evident our home for last 42 years (previously owned by my parents for previous 44 years and by my mother's grandparents for 39 years before that) would eventually not meet my needs so we decided to sell it and move into 1st floor of a duplex we also owned that was the town school from 1855-1913. Likewise, the property was requiring more maintenance that I was no longer able to keep up with. 2023 involved selling our home and moving into apartment next door and then in early 2025 an opportunity to move closer to our daughter and granddaughter in Kentucky which was completed in May 2025. For a number of months I have been seeking direction seeking God's direction and timing to return to blogging as my journey with Parkinson's continues to unfold with God's guiding hand in mine.
I hope and pray my devotions will continue to be a blessing for you. God certainly has become closer and more real to me since started this blog in 2016. I have spent time with Him studying scripture and praying and listening and writing this journal. I will continue seeking God’s help and will welcome your input to make this site as meaningful as I can and true to God, who is motivating me to create and maintain it. I will also welcome input in order to make format more meaningful going forward.
Don & Arlene McDaniel
In His Service,
Email: mcdanieldonald769@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Don1951
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 600+ blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present (https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/link-to-dons-devotional-journal-entries-2013/ )
You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to explore and use my devotional blog materials. View all posts by donsdevotions
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