Romans 12:9-13 “9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;13 Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.”
COMMENT: Today is the “National Day of Prayer” in USA. A day set aside with focus on praying for revival in the Christian church as well as in each one of us and the entire country as focus. The theme this years is “For Your Great Name’s Sake! Hear Us… Forgive Us…Heal Us!” The theme verse is taken from Daniel 9:19, which says, “O Lord, Listen! O Lord, Forgive! O Lord, Hear and Act! For Your Sake, O My God…”. Such a day and focus is a big deal with God and should be a big deal with each believer, especially those in USA. There is much to put to prayer both personally and corporately in church body locally, nationally, and globally. I am reflecting on need for revival in our local church, our local community, our nation and our world and, yes in my own soul. I am reflecting on the need of many faithful pastors I have met and bonded with through my blog and now support financially as well as with prayer and communication. I am so impressed at the openness and hunger for the Gospel especially in the rural empoverished areas of many African countries and in India. Much more openness than I see in US especially.
I am also reflecting on my personal family and need our children and grandchildren have for a closer walk with Christ. I also recognize I too need to walk closer with Him in deeper surrender and obedience and love. As our verses above reflect, you and I cannot fool or “scam” God. He knows us like none other and yet loves us like none other. What can we attempt to hide from Him that He doesn’t already know? What can we do to convince him to give us what we want and ask for? Scripture gives us examples of those who did persuade God to honor their requests. Yet was God not already convinced but simply waiting for us to open ourselves to let Him prepare us to receive His answer? That may be a theological debate between theologians, but we should not debate the fact that God is all powerful and knowing and knows all even before it happens. If that is true, then He knows our requests before we make them and knows when we will follow and when we will disobey Him. Yet He still gives us free will to do so. He won’t stop us but will put barriers in our path to slow us and encourage us to reconsider His Will and input. Today let’s take time to pray and consider His Will and seek His help preparing to do that will and pray He do so for our families, our churches, our country, our world, but start first by doing so for us. God has blessed us more than we realize, more than we can comprehend, more than we can know, but far far more than we deserve. Why? Because He loves us and desires good for us and not evil. Blessings and not consequences. But wicked actions do bring consequences. Consequences from breaking God’s Law. Consequences even He could not stop. But He received those consequences for us on Himself so we don’t need to. He will put obstacles we think are consequences in our path to hinder us from doing the evil in our minds. That is out of love and not anger. That is the good news of the Gospel we are called to share so more will come to Christ for forgiveness and new life. Come to Christ to have a eternal relationship with Him. You may be reading this after May 4th, but everyday – even today, can be your “National Day of Prayer”. God’s door is always open and He is always “OPEN FOR BUSINESS” He always has time for you and for me. GOD IS ONLY A PRAYER AWAY AND IS PATIENTLY WAITING FOR YO U AND ME TO STOP – CLEAR OUR MINDS OF DISTRACTIONS AND PRAY – BEING IN COMMUNICATION AND RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR GOD – OUR CREATOR – OUR REDEEMER – OUR FATHER BUT ALSO OUR DEAREST FRIEND.
We have God’s wonderful promise given to King Solomon when he dedicated the temple in Jerusalem and recorded in II Chronicles 7:14 “14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” I invite you to read II Chronicles 6-7 to absorb Solomon’s prayer as well as God’s reaction or response to his prayere, which is just a valid today as then.
AMEN? AMEN!
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
donsdevotions 
Thanks again for sharing. Your writings are God given inspiration to so many and also very thought provoking.
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