COMMITTED TO OUR COMMITMENTS

Proverbs 4,5

Committed to Our Commitments For His eyes are on the ways of man, and He sees all his steps. Job 34:21

Recommended Reading: Proverbs 20:7-12 “The righteous man walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him.8 A king who sits on the throne of judgment scatters all evil with his eyes.9 Who can say, “I have made my heart clean,I am pure from my sin”?10 Diverse weights and diverse measures, They are both alike, an abomination to the LORD.11 Even a child is known by his deeds, Whether what he does is pure and right.12 The hearing ear and the seeing eye, The LORD has made them both.”
COMMENTS: Have you ever done or said something you knew was wrong and looked around to see who you knew who might have witnessed it? You did so hoping no one you knew was there. Why? Well, we do care what others think of us and we tend to put on a better impression around those we are motivated to impress or to think well of us. In their company we find enough strength to fight off temptation until they are they are gone. Or we sneak off to a private place to “enjoy” our indulgences. Well, I hope such recollections are part of your distant past and not still a current battle. But if we are honest and honestly seek, like David did, God’s revelation to us to see ourselves as He does, (Psalm 139:23-24 “23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”), then we would discover sins in our lives that we currently think are not sins nor even being an issue for us. Why? BECAUSE GOD IS PERFECTLY GOOD AND WE STILL ARE NOT! There still are hidden corners we still need to surrender to Him to clean up. There always will be until we see Him face to face after we enter heaven.
So does that mean it is hopeless to try? No, not for us and not for Him. He will not clean up those corners until we yield them to Him. BUT HE KNOWS WE CAN’T HANDLE KNOWING HOW MANY DIRTY CORNERS YOU AND I HAVE, SO HE ONLY REVEALS THEM A FEW AT A TIME AND IN THE ORDER OF HIS PRIORITY AND PURPOSE. HE STILL LOVES AND FORGIVES US, BUT GUIDES US IN PROCESS OF BECOMING MORE LIKE HIM AS HE KNOWS WE ARE ABLE AND AS HIS LOVE FOR US ENABLES TOO. But when He does reveal to us one of those dirty corners, are we willing to yield it to Him to clean? That is the question and choice we are to make. When we do, we discover more of Him and enter a new and deeper relationship with Him.
A story was told long ago of a man who picked a dark night to sneak into his neighbor’s field to steal grain. He had his daughter watch and warn him if someone saw them. He began his sinful work, but stopped when his daughter came to him saying someone saw them. He fearfully asked who? She said “Someone above”. God was watching them. A wise girl and a foolish father who needed to stop and repent to the watching God. Consider how much better we would be and the world would be if we all were more like that daughter and less like her father. If we all were more aware of God’s watchful eye and presence and willingness to help us resist and overcome temptations of life.
Proverbs 15:3 says, “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” Maintaining our integrity in times of pressure brings glory to God.
But when we know He is watching and think we can hide ourselves and our deeds from Him and even from others, we deceive and harm ourselves.
Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who covers his sins will not prosper.”
But when we discover and invite His watchful eye, we open ourselves to His loving – abiding – helpful spirit to empower us to live and conduct ourselves with integrity and with a commitment to the Holy and Omniscient watching God desiring for us to be honest but also pure in heart. He will if we let Him. He will help us avoid saying and doing what we will regret and, instead, say and do what we will rejoice and praise Him for afterward.
AMEN? AMEN!
“Integrity is not so much what we do as much as who we are.” John Maxwell
WHO DO YOU WANT TO BE? WHO DO YOU WANT TO BE LIKE??
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 410 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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