Shielded

Mark 14,37

You, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory and the One who lifts up my head.

Psalm 3:3

RECOMMENDED READING  PSALM 3:  “Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me.2 Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah.3 But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.4 I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.5 I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me.6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about.7 Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.8 Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.”

COMMENTS: Trials and hardship are a fact of life that everyone must endure now and again.  However, some families and individuals seem to endure more than their share.  Joni Eareskson Tada is one of those individuals who have endured over 50 years of being a paraplegic and enduring cancer and a lifetime of pain associated with her handicap. But even though she is paralyzed from the neck down, God has developing a powerful worldwide ministry through her.  Her hardships drew her closer to Christ, empowering her to have a outlook and vision and insights that not only transformed her life, giving her joy and purpose, but enabled her to instill that same vision and passion and joy in others.   Countless millions have been transformed and saved through her ministry.  God have her a devoted husband who enables her to focus on ministry but also to be a part of that ministry.  She more than endures her handicaps but is so looking forward to the new body God has prepared for her.  She is looking forward to heaven but is passionate about living life here and fulfilling her calling and mission while here on earth.  

That is a powerful witness and example for each of us.  When we think our problems are overwhelming, it helps to see how others manage their problems with Christ involved.  Such examples encourage and provide teaching times for all of us when we are open to be taught.  But our best and perfect example is Christ and our best manual is the Bible.  Why?  Because it is God’s love letter and Word for us.  Books and articles and even devotions like this help draw us to Christ and provide good council and instruction, but are no substitute for scripture God provides freely to every one of us in His Word, our Bible.  We need to spend time in His Word daily or we begin to weaken in our spirits and become more vulnerable to satan’s attacks and snares.

When we look at the Lord’s Prayer ( Matthew 6:9-13 & Luke 11:2-4):
Matthew 6:9-13 “9 “This, then, is how you should pray:“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” 

Verse 14 goes on “14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Luke 11:2-4 “ 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say:“‘Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.[b]3 Give us each day our daily bread.4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.[c]And lead us not into temptation.[d]’”

Verse 5-8 goes on “5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity[e] he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.”

When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we conclude the prayer with praise and worship:

Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name.Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.

 

Christ gave us this prayer out of a request to show us how to pray.  This prayer is a guideline to follow but also a model prayer and a prayer we can use too.  Its instruction shows us to begin with praise and worship to our Creator and Lord and One and only God.  Then express a desire to see and support God’s Will instead of our own.  To do so before approaching the throne of Grace with our own needs and requests.  Then to seek God’s forgiveness for sins and offenses against Him but not without recognizing and forgiving others who have offended and sinned against us.  The next portion is odd in that it asks God not to lead us into temptation.  That seems odd since God doesn’t tempt nor desires us to be tempted.  But, as we learned from Job’s example, God does allow satan to tempt us but uses those temptations to remind and teach us to lean on and rely on Him to give us wisdom and desire and strength to resist satan’s attacks and draw closer to Him.  We are asking Him to restrain satan and spare us the worst of satan’s attacks and schemes.  We ask Him to use other methods to strengthen us if possible within His Will.  We are, like Christ did prior to going to the cross, ask if another way be possible, to spare us that pain and danger. 

But truth is running from satan usually is something we either choose to do or not do.  How often do we stay in harm’s way simply because we either are fascinated with temptation or even want to and “enjoy” temptation.   We think we can toy with temptation without sinning.  But truth is, we simply are not wise or smart or strong enough to do so.  Paul told Timothy to flee youthful temptations and lusts.  That advice is valid and wise for all, young and old, male and female, rich or poor, Christian or pagan.  For all are prone and vulnerable to temptation.  Those  who have a relationship with Christ have a basis and understanding the dangers and source of temptation and what is at stake, while those outside the faith are even more pawns for satan to use.  But God loves both the faithful and unfaithful.  Those who know Him and those who don’t and even those who continue to reject Him.  The choice is theirs and ours and His Grace continues to be offered to all.  But our hard hearts prevent us from receiving all His offers and all available to us.  But the Lord’s Prayer reminds us His choices includes limiting our exposure to satan’s temptations and mischief.  He continues to do that but is open to our pleas to further reduce that exposure out of a desire to focus on worshipping and serving and fellowshipping with Him.  Afterall, there are many options open to Him to draw us closer to and grow us into being more like Him.  Many of those choices we make also influences options He has to accomplish the goals He has for us.  When we draw closer to Him, we may just eliminate the need for some painful options He needs to resort to draw us closer to Him.  That wasn’t the case for Job, but God still needed to allow tragedy in his life for a time for the purpose of teaching us too.  But He and even his family I dare say would now say their pain was worth it.  One day we too will have the same response to that question regarding hardships and tragedy in our lives.  We my need to wait til heaven to see fruit of our pain but we will see that fruit, be assured.  Our time one earth is so brief based on eternity.

Psalm 84:11: “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

 

“The Lord God is to me both a Sun and a Shield; a sun to enlighten and comfort me, a shield to protect and defend me.”  Matthew Henry

If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 317 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

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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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