[Love] is not provoked. 1 Corinthians 13:5b
SCRIPTURE: EPHESIANS 4:26-27 “26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:27 Neither give place to the devil.”
COMMENTS: We are told at a young age to avoid dangerous animals and situations. Don’t poke a sleeping bear or kick over a hornet’s nest or play with fire. We should not provoke others to anger nor allow ourselves to be provoked to anger, which will drive us to say and do things we will later regret. Love is patient, which means it will not allow us to be easily provoked to anger. Anger is a choice, as are choices anger will drive us to make once we give in to anger’s passion. We are told to choose carefully when tempted to anger. Like pride, anger can blind us to wise choices and only make poor choices visible to us. Why? Because blinding us and makes us deaf to God’s voice is what satan works hard to do and can only do that if we let him. When he blinds us to God’s presence and council, we will only hear his temptations, resulting in becoming defenseless because we have chosen to ignore God. Satan is no match for God but we are no match for satan when fight him alone. The old saying “God will not allow us to bear more than we can endure” is only a half truth. We need the other half to be true. The other half is “with His help”. The complete truth is “God will not allow us to bear more than we can endure with His help!” We forget the latter part and wonder why we fail in fighting temptation and control our tempers and sharp tongue. Regrets are ultimately the result. Experience reminds us that is true but every time we fail that memory escapes us and we repeat old sins and mistakes only to later wonder why we did it again. Well, we need to know our enemy as we need to know our God. Maybe we need to paste a note on our sleeve to remind us to run to God first the next time we feel anger welling up in our souls. Think and write down the steps that progress to sin and go to God in prayer first when start to see yourself going through those steps again. God so wants to help us break that cycle of sin. But He is a gentleman and will not force Himself on us uninvited. We must seek His help first and then He will rush in to take over the battle with satan. I guarantee you satan will run when you call in reinforcements.
Well, I do not follow this advice and council as often as I need to, but times when I do, I always see a better outcome. God’s goal is to be in relationship with you and me and for us to also be in relationship with each other.
Ecclesiastes 4: 9-13 “9 Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.10 For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.11 Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?12 And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.13 Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished.” God so wants to be that second cord to us but also wants us to support and make each other accountable to be the third cord for each other. How often does God’s help come to us from others. Why is that? Could it be so we can not only make each other stronger but together be in fellowship and relationship with God more strongly together than separately too? I passionately believe so. When we try to overcome temptation alone, we set ourselves up for failure and God doesn’t intend nor desire for us to fight temptation alone. We first need to seek His help but also to be open and look for those who He will make available to us to help too.
In ministry all too often we try to do God’s work alone. The result will ultimately be burnout and being overwhelmed to the point of giving up. The need will be more than we can bear and resources needed far more that we have. Well, God’s timing is perfect but too often seems late to us, especially when we don’t wait for Him. We need to wait for reinforcements before acting even on good choices we make. Waiting for reinforcements whether those reinforcements are other people or God’s guiding spirit, but best when are both.
This message is a reminder to me because I need reminded daily because I tend to forget and run ahead of God before realizing I’ve done so. I suspect you have that same tendancy and need reminded too. Maybe we need to remind each other so we can be that third cord for each other. 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
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