I am distraught. Psalm 88:15
RECOMMENDED READING: Psalm 88 “O Lord, God of my salvation,I have cried out day and night before You.2 Let my prayer come before You;Incline Your ear to my cry.3 For my soul is full of troubles,And my life draws near to the grave.4 I am counted with those who go down to the pit;I am like a man who has no strength,5 Adrift among the dead,Like the slain who lie in the grave,Whom You remember no more,And who are cut off from Your hand.6 You have laid me in the lowest pit,In darkness, in the depths.7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me,And You have afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah8 You have put away my acquaintances far from me;You have made me an abomination to them;I am shut up, and I cannot get out;9 My eye wastes away because of affliction.Lord, I have called daily upon You;I have stretched out my hands to You.10 Will You work wonders for the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise You? Selah”
COMMENTS: Psalm 88 is one of the saddest psalms and scriptures recorded in our Bible. But it is not the “end of the story” but instead a frozen point in time. Even Daniel enduring a 21 day dry period when his prayers seemed to go against a brick wall (Daniel 10). Job endured a terrible period facing one tragedy after another, each worse than previous and then such a dry period when his prayers went unanswered and he felt alone.
So why does God inflict such times, especially on His faithful people. It is one thing to be silent with those in rebellion against His commands, which we have such times recorded in scripture. But normally God would call a prophet to warn them to repent before judgment would come. So, why has he allowed His followers to endure a time of trial while also enduring silence from Him for that time? Job’s experience, as recorded in the Book of Job, gives us one major reason, which wasn’t revealed to Job until after test or trial was over.
Other times of unanswered prayer like Daniel’s (Daniel 10) and Elijah’s ( I Kings 19). Yet Jesus even had to spend 40 days of fasting in the wilderness (Mtt. 4 & Luke 4) in preparation before facing satan’s attacks and temptations.
But times of unanswered prayers did and will be limited and God’s fellowship and help will come quickly after that. That are the lessons of those before us and lessons God teaches us from scripture. He doesn’t withhold fellowship out of anger or meanness but out of divine purpose and discernment of what we need in preparation for greater obedience. He is preparing us for greater faith and exercise of that faith. He withholds that information in order to show us how much faith we have and motivate us to seek and desire greater faith. Faith necessary if we are going to growth and become more like Him and more usable by Him.
Well, God’s Will and God’s reasons and God’s Timing all reside in His sovereign Plan, which is beyond our understanding. But real question is, DO WE REALLY LOVE AND TRUST HIM? HOW MUCH? My conclusion is not enough. That is why God must exercise and develop and change us so we are capable and willing to receive more Faith and be more Trusting in Him. He won’t let us down but likely will respond later than we want or would like . But He knows other circumstances and individuals needing greater faith and His intervention that also needs worked in harmony with ours. His Will and Plan and Workings are Perfect. We need to believe that but we also need to not only convince our minds but also our hearts and actions and words too. We also need to convince our resolve and actions too. We can do so for a time but we need to sustain that resolve until God does respond with His Helping Hand. Don’t stop running until the race is over. Don’t quit on the last lap when muscles are aching and discouragement is strongest. That is when we need to praise and worship Him the most and when is the most critical that we stay the course and remain faithful. If He is still silent, His Word is still available to remind and encourage us. His Holy Spirit is still with us and on the job, whether we feel His presence or not. He is on the way to rescue us in time, whether we see Him coming or not. He will arrive in time, if we stay the course and remain faithful in the meantime. He always has and always will! I need reminded of that and believe you do at time too.
“The weakest Christian can at any period of his life at any moment of the day and in any circumstance cry out to God for help and instantly have the resources of the infinite, sovereign God at his disposal.” James Montgomery Boice
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 320 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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