Can’t Find a Way Out?

        Daniel 10,12

My eyes flow and do not cease, without interruption, till the Lord from heaven looks down and sees.   Lamentations 3:49-50

RECOMMENDED READING: PSALM 102:18-22 , ” 18 Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord:19 “The Lord looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed the earth,20 to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death.” 21 So the name of the Lord will be declared in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem 22 when the peoples and the kingdoms assemble to worship the Lord. 23 In the course of my life[b] he broke my strength;  he cut short my days.
24 So I said: “Do not take me away, my God, in the midst of my days; your years go on through all generations. 25 In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. 26 They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment.
Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. 27 But you remain the same, and your years will never end. 28 The children of your servants will live in your presence; their descendants will be established before you.”

COMMENTS:  It doesn’t matter in the span of time from eternity past to eternity future if you and I live 20 years or 120 years.  But it does matter to God what we do with those years.  How we spend them and influence we have on others.     Our lives do matter and will impact others for good or evil.     Even a     recluse who avoids people makes a negative impact by depriving those who he could influence.

So, if we are serious about doing God’s will and doing good, what choices should we make and how do we make wise choices w.r.t. temptations especially related to those area we are the most vulnerable and weak?  Teens and young adults have big life changing choices to make with little experience and knowledge to help make best choices.  Career choices, spouse choice, where to live and work and go to school.   Friends to make and where to join a church family are all life changing choices. 

I too made those choices before I was 30.   Looking back at those choices, I am glad I made the choices I did.  So how was I able to make   wise choices on career, wife, and location?  Well, I had godly parents who gave me wise council.  I had a faith in God established at the young age of 10, so God’s council from His Word and from other believers and His “small voice” directly was something I sought and valued.   That made all the difference and spared me many dangerous dead-end roads that wrong choices would have placed me on.

Yet there were many crossroads and difficulties I encountered even on right roads that caused me to question decisions made.  Soul searching and prayer and devotion helped me resolve those difficulties and gain reassurance I was on the right path.  But then again, some minor course corrections became necessary do mostly to sin that had crept into my life.  Sin like selfishness, ambition, laziness, lust for money-security-things, fear and lack of faith to face new challenges and responsibilities God wanted to put on my shoulders just to name a few.  Wasting time was a sin often judged as a need instead of a sin to repent of and overcome.  Wasted time that should have been spent in devotion, in prayer, in ministering to others, in adding more quality time with my family and church and mission field to mention a few. 

Don’t you get amazed how some people can do so much and accomplish so much more in a day’s time and still seem to have free time too?  I have known a few like that, but discovered they planned their day and even planned their idle or leisure hours.  I noticed they were careful to solicit help when needed for them or in order to be an opportunity for another.   

How about wasting time trying to find a way out of a maze or find a destination when your GPS or map are coming up short or don’t include updates to roads made or maybe don’t include smaller roads you are encountering.  Asking for help as a last resort when better to do so when first encounter problem.  Well being disciplined to write down those directions instead of depending on memory when do ask is also a discipline I am still learning to follow.

Well, life is full on uncharted roads and twists and turns and dead ends not in our plans.  Some of those dead ends are caused by us but many are beyond our control or ability to avoid.  

Things like sickness or death of loved one or loss of job or choices a loved one or child makes causing them and us problems.  These and many more are part of life and have been since Adam. 

But God has provided a way to help: 

  1. He has provided years of overlap with previous generations.
  2. He has provided His Word with His own wisdom and experiences of those before us (both good and bad).
  3. He provides the way of mercy and forgiveness at the Cross.
  4. He provides His Own Spirit to abide in and council and strengthen us.
  5. He provided family and church family to encourage and strengthen and help too.
  6. He provides a way out or a way back when go down a wrong path.
  7. He provides hope of knowing a new body and home and family await us at life’s end if we put our trust in Him.

This list is not complete and I encourage you to take some time to add to it.  I believe doing so will encourage you as it does me too.  God has thought of everything, but we simply haven’t all the best options He has made available to us.       HE IS TRUSTWORTHY AND MORE THAN CAPABLE TO    GUIDE US TO A BRIGHT ETERNAL FUTURE.  HE HAS DONE SO FOR MULTITUDES BEFORE US AND WILL DO SO FOR MULTITUDES YET TO COME.

God is eternal, so His perspective is much different and broader than ours.  Short term hardship that brings long term benefit is clear to Him but unclear to us because we can’t yet see the outcome.  BUT HE CAN!   WE MUST NOT FORGET THAT!  AMEN?  AMEN!

We do not always understand Thy care, our Father, but Thy great hand of love always covers us. Show us Thy signature, now and then, that we may know that we are on the right road.
John Wanamaker

If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 447 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

Unknown's avatar

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.

Leave a comment