Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me. Psalm 23:4
RECOMMENDED READING: ISAIAH 43:1-3 “But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.3 For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.”
COMMENTS: David was the youngest of Jesse’s 8 sons. As a shepherd boy, he spent a lot of time alone tending his flock of sheep. Extended times of solitude would make most think he led a boring life, but he spent that time preparing to defend and protect his sheep against predators that would take and kill the sheep. That time practicing with his sling served him well and even prepared him for Goliath. He learned to have courage no matter how dangerous the foe. David also used that time alone to commune with God, developing a deep personal relationship with God that enabled him to face Goliath but also prepared him to be king.
We tend to think the possibility of a one-on-one relationship with God was not possible until the Holy Spirit was given after Christ’s ascension. But there are numerous people in Old Testament times or pre-Pentecost times, who had daily fellowship with God. Examples like Abraham, David, Daniel, and Mary (Jesus’ mother) to mention a few. Even Enoch and Noah had such a relationship with God. We don’t know how many had such a relationship with God in those days. I am sure there were many more, but what changed at Pentecost was a much closer accessibility of God to each and every Christian. I suspect for most faithful Jews of Old Testament days, God was distant and was only reached through the priest and not directly. A few were willing or able to take the next step of having a daily personal relationship with God. I suspect it was much like how most Catholics traditionally viewed their relationship with God, only approaching God through their priest and only confessing their sins through their priests.
I have to admit, this is more my perspective and view so believe there is room for differences of opinion. But what we do know is after Pentecost, each and every human who accepts Christ’s gift of salvation has the Holy Spirit available to live in and abide and guide continually him or her. That knowledge and opportunity is life changing, as it was to those long ago who were willing and enabled to have that personal relationship with God long ago. Truth is, God hasn’t changed so He has always been passionate about having a personal relationship with humans, but sin kept humans from having that relationship. God would provide and offer a way of restoration, but not until the Cross were humans able to approach God themselves for redemption.
Well, we can debate how Daniel or Samuel or David or Noah achieved such a personal relationship with God, but we also need to realize God approached them when they were open and willing to come to Him. Repent of sin was and is a requirement as is devoting time each day to spend time in devotion and prayer with God. However, I believe as hard and challenging as it is to have and sustain such a personal time with God today, it was harder then before the Cross and Pentecost. We have so much more to be grateful for today. We also have the New Testament and all it’s wisdom and insights and examples to guide and inspire us that was not available to Old Testament saints. Yet insights such as Psalm 23 are still powerful in guiding us. Psalm 8 gives us insight of how David used his solitary time in fellowship with God, still valuable in showing us how to have a personal relationship with God too.
David faced risk of death daily for many years while being pursued by King Saul. Danger and hardship isn’t pleasant but can be a powerful too opening us to receive more from Christ, more then we otherwise would be open to receive.
Faith is our trust and confidence in the promises God gives but also confidence in the relationship we have with Christ, with the Holy Spirit, and with the Father. The opposite of faith is not lack of faith or the doubt of questioning of God that comes with weak faith or lack of certainty of what or when God is going to respond.
THE OPPOSITE OF FAITH IS REALLY FEAR. Consider examples through history of lack of faith. It has always been fear. Fear of death. Fear of pain and suffering. Fear of loss of money or possession. Fear of loss of freedom and comfort and family and friends. Fear of loss of security. When we look at Peter and reason for denying Christ, his lack of faith did bring fear as the source of his denial. What changed after Pentecost was faith sufficient to embolden him with courage sufficient to preach the Gospel and to face his own death on the cross confidently. FAITH AND FEAR CAN NOT ABIDE TOGETHER JUST LIKE DARKNESS AND LIGHT CANNOT. AS LIGHT OVERCOMES AND DRIVES OUT DARKNESS, FAITH DRIVES OUT FEAR. “True peace comes not from the absence of trouble but from the presence of God.” Alexander MacLaren
“Not everyone is your brother or sister in faith, but everyone is your neighbor, and you must love your neighbor.” Timothy Keller, in Generous Justice
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 144 blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present.
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/Don1951
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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