“Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters, since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ.” Colossians 3:23
COMMENTS: I would encourage you to reflect on your work day with consideration to how Christ both has and could have affected decisions you’ve made and how you interacted with co-workers or everyone you cross paths with during each day. I started doing that early in my career and decided it was better to spend time in prayer and bible reading before I went to work, more so than at night, to be in the right frame of mind for the Holy Spirit to guide me during the day. I would find myself a bit more patient and willing to reflect / send a silent prayer before making decisions – even less significant ones, which made a noticeable difference on how well day went and how well I felt about choices made at end of the day. Consistency in devotions every morning has been hit and miss for me but regret I wasn’t more faithful in resolve to spend time with Christ every morning. I have found that time spent in devotion and prayer makes a big difference, even after retired, with how I deal with my grandchildren or Arlene. It is hard to describe the difference it makes, but is much like having someone close you can ask their opinion regularly vs not having them near. The feeling of confidence and peace is noticeably different as well as seeing myself make wiser choices during day. Of course, even that isn’t 100% and sometimes think God intends that so don’t become too comfortable with where I am in my relationship with Him and continue to realize need to get closer with Him in that relationship. Over the years I have also found God wants us to grow closer to Him and become more Christ like and not remain static in that relationship or growth. I feel I am closer to Him than I was 30 yrs. ago and a little more Christ like than then, but I also have a little better sense of how perfect He is and how far below that level of perfection I am even though I can see improvement in my character since then.
30 years ago, my perception of the Holy Spirit was an unseen and seldom felt presence who was difficult to understand and even harder to hear at least consistently. Looking back, I believe that difficulty was mostly due to noise from otherwise distractions of busy work days and packed schedules. Responsibilities of work and family and even church obligations and jobs all intruded and compressed my time of fellowship in prayer and worship and devotion. But when I started keeping a devotional journal, the discipline of keeping such a journal forced me to push out distractions and spend badly needed time with my Lord each day. By doing so, the Holy Spirit’s presence and input started becoming more real and His voice in my soul more commonly heard. Yet, retirement has greatly helped me both keep that discipline and also to open more time each day to spend precious and greatly needed time with Him. By doing so, my understanding and love for His Holy Spirit has grown much. Realizing Christ’s personality and character and reactions are identical to God the Father but also to the Holy Spirit helps me to deem fellowship with Christ but also with the Holy Spirit to also be with God the Father and with Christ at the same time. Each part of the Trinity is completely connected and integrated with the other but each has a unique role in changing and growing us to be more like Him but also in growing a deeper and sustainable and continual relationship with Him. So instead of trying to figure out the doctrine and reality of Trinity, to realize the Holy Spirit is God’s spirit abiding in and partnering with each of us personally and more closely than our own heart, we begin to realize just how personal and amazing and awesome our God is and how precious and real a personal relationship with Him is. To enjoy that relationship with Him with the Holy Spirit is also enjoying a personal relationship with Christ and with God the Father. We are not capable of comprehending God but we are capable of loving and following and obeying Him. By digging deep into His Word, we are learning more of Him and how others have grown in their relationship with Him, but also gaging genuineness of our relationship with theirs.
Satan is so skillful at deception, we must use scripture as a barometer to constantly judge if we are being guiding by the Holy Spirit or deceived by satan. We wonder how radical followers of Islam could come to think they are worshipping and honoring Allah by killing innocent people in his name. Well, deception is real and satan’s influence and deception as an “angel of light” presenting lies as truth is real. Every one of us is capable of being deceived by satan if we are not rooted into His Word and making sure what we are being led to do is compatible with scripture. That is our gage and anchor so we must not grow lax in using it… 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 