And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and bethankful. Colossians 3:15
RECOMMENDED SCRIPTURE READING COLOSSIANS 3:12-17 “12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
COMMENTS: Oswald Chambers wrote a famous devotional book “Utmost for His Highest” is 100 years old but still in print and among the most popular devotional books used today. Oswald wrote, “There are certain things we must not pray for – moods, for instance. Moods never go by praying, moods go by kicking .” Emotions may be changed and anger subsides by calmer and more pleasant circumstances, but come back with a vengeance when those circumstances change.
Learning to control our emotions and feelings and attitudes is critical to living a healthy and joyous life successfully in all circumstances. Oswald is revealing his discovery of exercising a will and determination to control emotions and attitudes and not let uncontrolled emotions and attitudes control actions and conduct.
So how do we gain control of our emotions and attitudes? Gratitude is the key to doing so. Gratitude is not an emotion we feel initially but a conscious choice we make. Even scripture reveals this and is even a command God gives us. Scripture repeats often the command to “Be Thankful”. To remember and reflect on God’s goodness and blessings He provides and be thankful. Even reflection on circumstances that cause distress, which stir up feelings of fear and anxiety and even anger, but even among these negative emotions we will discover something to be thankful for. Looking back in our memories of past distresses, toward remembering and discovering positive results and wisdom gained from the experience. Even discovering dangerous or harmful things and even places and people to avoid can be a positive result. But even more, discovering the wisdom in seeking and leaning on God’s faithful abiding Holy Spirit and wisdom that Spirit and His Word provide to council and strengthen during crisis is a vital life discovery. Once we learn and practice that wisdom, we soon learn God is indeed involved deeply and continually in our lives and is a powerful effective influence in our lives.
Gratitude is indeed a choice we make and is especially effective when we do so in response and in submission to God’s Command in scripture to do so, to “Be Thankful.” Gratitude while remembering God’s goodness and recognizing God’s influence and involvement in our lives and circumstances not only change our attitudes and emotions positively , but also increase and strengthen our Faith and confident trust in Christ. Even in the midst of the most trying and miserable and even disastrous circumstances, we have the confidence and promise these circumstances will not last and He will prevail and we with Him soon. Life is short and even if misery were to last til our death, on the other side of the grave is our Savior waiting to greet us with our eternal home ready for us and a host of angels and loved ones gone on before us waiting to greet us. Then there is a new eternal body for us that will not grow weary or age or weaken.
Thanksgiving Day and Christmas season is a wonderful time to focus on the art of gratitude and especially expressing our gratitude to Go d and to our families and to so many who serve us throughout the year. Doing so will make this special time of year more joyous and richer, better equip us for business and activity and many events that can be overwhelming this time of year, but also prepare us to set new goals and plans for the coming year. Christ could still return in 2018 but then comes the question, if not will He return in 2019? Circumstances are indicating in increasing intensity that His return is very soon. Will we be ready when He does return or will we be left behind? That need not be a worry but needs to be important enough to us to make sure we are ready. Christ wants us to know and have confidence that we are ready. We need not be in doubt.
No matter if you are reading this on Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day or any other day of the year remaining in 2018 or 2019 or beyond, God’s helping hand and His abiding truth and the effectiveness of a grateful will and determined attitude are still vital and effective on the road to heaven. The road starts at the cross but has a lot of side roads and detours with potential of distracting and derailing us for that path. That is satan’s attempt to pull and keep us away from our God and Savior. Don’t let him. Choose not to let him. Choose instead life. Life that God intended for us, eternal life. AMEN? AMEN!
“We have to take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and shake ourselves, and we will find that we can do what we said we could not…. The Christian life is one of incarnate spiritual pluck.” Oswald Chambers
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 303 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/ 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.
My hope and prayer are, my blog and devotional materials will become a source of encouragement and tools in ministry for you.
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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