Thought Therapy

Philippians-4-6-7                             
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

RECOMMENDED READING: PHILIPPIANS 4 “Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.2 I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.3 And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are in the book of life.4 Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity.11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.14 Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction.15 Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.16 For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity.17 Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.18 But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God.19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.20 Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.21 Salute every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren which are with me greet you.22 All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar’s household.23 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”

COMMENTS:  Anxiety comes from doubt or lack of trust but doubt starts with a thought.  A voice or idea that begins in our mind.  Peter thought “I could drown” and looked down on the water he was walking on and out to the storm coming towards him.  He had to look away from Jesus in order to look at the water and storm.  When he did that, the thought of drowning stirred fear and doubt in his soul and he began to sink. Like Peter, our actions are preceded with thoughts.  The thoughts may be automatic and reactionary, but the choice of how to deal with them is under our control.  Peter could have ignored those thoughts and kept his eyes on Jesus.  Even better, he could have asked Jesus to help him dismissed those thoughts before they took hold while keeping his eyes on Jesus.  Either way, he would have completed his walk on water to Jesus instead of sinking and needing rescued.   But by sinking, God uses Peter’s example to teach us so we learn from Peter’s failings as well as from his faith.  Peter did get out of the boat and walk to Jesus and away from the safety of the boat.  He just wasn’t prepared for the reality of facing the storm outside the boat.  We aren’t either and also find it difficult to consistently keep our eyes on Jesus too.  But Peter’s experience also encourages us to know when we do venture out in faith and become weak, Jesus is there to help us as well.  Peter had to ask for help and we need to be ready to as well.

Peter went on to become the faithful rock Jesus envisioned him to be and die by crucifixion as did Jesus.  What changed in Peter, and countless multitudes of Christ followers since, is the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit given at Pentecost.  The Holy Spirit makes our prayers and scripture and our faith real and strong, but daily prayer and scripture study is our lifeline with God and how He speaks most often and consistently to us and us to Him. 

I have Parkinson’s Disease, which is caused by a lack of Dopamine, a chemical the brain produces to improved conductivity of brain signals to body parts.   Movement and balance diminishes because those signals can not fully pass to those parts.  The Holy Spirit acts like dopamine to carry our prayers to the Father and His response back but even more, to act as our comforter and dearest friend. 

Lack of confidence due to less reliability with balance and motor skills and fatigue makes limitations worse and risk of falling greater.  Likewise, exercise that increasing heart beat improves production of Dopamine and enables patient to function much better.   

Likewise, exercising our faith by trusting and obeying opens the door for the Holy Spirit to connect and become stronger in our lives and provide a much more meaningful and stronger connection between the Father and us and our prayers and bible study as well.  Communication and fellowship between us and our Heavenly Father becomes more real and stronger as well.    Christ also becomes more real and closer to us too. 

So, salvation only begins our journey of faith.  That journey takes us through times of peace as well as through times of storm and even tragedy.  But that journey is with the Holy Spirit at our side with Christ and the Father with Him walking and talking with us making us wiser and stronger and more like Him as we are willing.  I’ve heard it said the Christian life is getting up and falling down, getting up and falling down all the way to heaven.  That is reality but need not be.   The falling down, like with Peter, is our fault.  The getting up involves our surrender and God’s help. As we get closer to Him and keep our eyes on Him more consistently, the frequency and severity of falling down diminishes and periods of growth and effective obedience grows longer and more effective.  I am striving to do so and pray you are too.  I know the Holy Spirit is eager and willing and committed to follow through with us as we allow Him to with our submission and obedience and ask Him to.   AMEN?  AMEN!

“Faith does not eliminate questions. But faith knows where to take them.” Elisabeth Elliot

If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 183 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/Dondevotionals/

My hope and prayer is, they will become a source of encouragement and tools in ministry for you.

Published by donsdevotions

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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.

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