Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak the word, but it will not stand, for God is with us. Isaiah 8:10
RECOMMENDED READING: Jeremiah 1:9-10 “Then the LORD put out His hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.””
COMMENTS: Jeremiah was only a teen or a young man in his early 20’s at most when God came to him with a call to be God’s prophet to his people. He would be given the power to impact nations in his generations and in generations to come even to today. How could he imagine the magnitude he would have or the great cost or sacrifice he would face. No wonder Jeremiah’s initial reaction was to say “Ah, Lord God behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” God did not take no for an answer but addresses Jeremiah’s concerns and doubts. Jeremiah 1:6-8 “Do not say, ‘I’m only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.”
Jeremiah’s initial response was one of doubt and fear. A strong sense of inadequacy and overwhelmed at task God was calling him to do. God understood Jeremiah’s fears and assured him to not fear but trust God to stay true to His Word and never leave or abandon Jeremiah and provide words and courage and protection to fulfill his mission. That was enough to convince Jeremiah to step out in faith and obedience.
You and I will not likely be confronted with same calling or challenges that Jeremiah faced nor have the lasting impact he has had. But then again he didn’t dream of such either. He simply obeyed God each day one step at a time. He would journey or go where lead to without knowing what he would face next.
You and I should not discount or take lightly the impact we can have if we seek and follow the call God has for you and me too. It may not be as challenging as Jeremiah’s but consider the responsibility and influence God has given us as parents, as grandparents, as a teacher or engineer or office worker or factory worker or ….. The influence we have to those we work with or serve is impacted by our willingness to submit to God’s calling and Will and level of Joy and eagerness to do His Will. Who is our employer? Is it our supervisor or employer or is it God who made and sustains and enables our employer to provide a job for us and ability to pay us for doing that work. How well we do our job and how we interact with others is dependent on the relationship with have with God and how much we love Him.
Can you remember your first day of school, the first day of college, the first day of a new job, the first time you spoke in front of an audience or attended an important event? Well, the sense of nervous anxiety caused us to prepare and practice and put on our best clothes to prepare and be on our best behavior. Desire to make a good impression and be well thought of. To work towards a goal and then realize that goal can bring great satisfaction but then responsibility such accomplishment require can temper excitement and joy experienced.
Fear and nervousness comes from doubting our abilities or lack of experience or skills. With youth comes energy and enthusiasm and passion but also impulsiveness and foolish lack of experience and wisdom too.
God brought to Jeremiah the experience, and wisdom and planning and wisdom Jeremiah lacked. But then again, God provided such far above what Jeremiah could achieve in 100 lifetimes, or what we could either.
So, we each need to realize the same God who loves and used Jeremiah to do great things – partnering with Him, also loves and desires for us to also partner with Him too. Partner in guiding others into a personal relationship with Him too and partnering in leading others to life – life eternal – life filled with confident hope.
Truth is, if God calls us to lead just one to Christ in our lifetime, He will greet us into heaven with a “well done good and faithful servant” just as much as He greeted Jeremiah or Paul or Billy Graham. The parable of the talents reveals how God judges faithfulness. He does not expect more of us than what He has gifted and enabled us to do, not to do what He has gifted and equipped others to do. Yet, each has equally valuable work to do for His pleasure.
That is wonderfully good news for you and me. News that we are equally precious and valuable to Him. We are equally useful in fulfilling His purpose and plan as well. But it also true that it is just as important to Him that we obey His call as it was for Jeremiah to. But it might be as difficult for us to do so as it was for Jeremiah. But in 100 years, it will be just as important to us if we are faithful too.If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 363 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
donsdevotions 