THE WATER OF WORSHIP

                                                                   john 7,37-39                            

O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.   Psalm 63:1

Recommended Reading: JOHN 7:37-39“37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”[a] 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.”

COMMENTS:   God’s Will is simple and straight forward.  It is simply to be in close fellowship with you and me and all His creation while providing life and provision during that fellowship.  He desires and dreams of that fellowship without the distractions and stumbling blocks satan keeps laying on us.  But He wants that fellowship to be our choice made by our free will so He continues to allow satan to do his mischief of deception to persuade us to follow His path that leads to death. 

Well, God’s Will overall is clear, it may be less clear in more specific instances.  Less clear may be His direction on specific choices and decisions we are required to make along life’s journey.  Choices that impact our lives and lives of those we love and care for.  Lives of our family, church family, co-workers, friends, and neighbors.  Granted, we may think our choices don’t impact others but if reflect on past, we soon realize our choices do impact others greatly.   Our choice of spouse determines what our children will look like and be related to and how they will be raised.  Where we live impacts outside influences on our life and our families.   Also, where we live and work also determines the circle of influence we will have as well as influence on us.

Well, Romans 8:28 reminds us God uses both our wisest as well as our most foolish choices to His honor and our good.  That doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter what we choose to do.  What it does say is that God loves and desires to replace evil with good and convince us how much better good is than bad.  How much better His Will and His Ways are than ours are and satan’s especially.     

So, if we are sincere in knowing and following the choices God desires for us to make, we need to learn the importance of praying and seeking Him first before the urgency of making the choice is pressing on us.  To be in fellowship so frequently and consistently that we are already ready to receive His council when ask.  His abiding Holy Spirit enables us to be in fellowship with Him 24x7x365 even though our humanity finds it almost impossible to sustain a prayerful attitude and openness for extended time. But just as exercise is necessary to build strength and stamina in order to carry greater loads, so is prayer and scripture study and fellowship with other believers needed to exercise our faith and skill in communing with God through His Holy Spirit. 

I Thess. 3:16-18 “16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

God, in His Grace, is eager to forgive since He paid the ultimate price necessary to buy our forgiveness.  But forgiveness can not be implemented until each individual asks for and receives it and opens it.  That is done by recognizing and asking forgiveness for our sins and turning from them and to Christ requesting His mercy and forgiveness and asking for Him (the Holy Spirit) to come into our heart and soul to clean and guide us to live and follow His way and turn from the sinful path previously on.   He also promises to forgive us as often and as many times as necessary in order to be in and sustain an ongoing fellowship and Christ centered relationship with Him in which our thoughts and actions and words reflect His influence more and more and satan’s influence less and less.

God’s will is for us to be like Him and not like satan any more.  His will is to welcome us into heaven to live with Him forever enjoying both His company and company of others.

His will is to partner with us in doing His Will not out of obligation but out of love and gratitude.   How that plays out and unfolds in our daily lives and daily choices we make, that is where we are each unique and require unique council and guidance from Him and from His Word and fellow believers.  The best choices usually are pretty obvious but some are less clear.   Why?  I can’t say, but do believe He desires always to draw us into deeper fellowship with Him, so inviting us to go deeper to find those answers encourages us to desire and yield to going deeper.  Otherwise, we would likely get lazy in our relationship with Him, resulting in pulling back from fellowship instead.  We can’t be stagnant and sustain a meaningful relationship with Him.   Work and discipline are necessary as is anything and everything worthwhile.   Any meaningful relationship with a spouse or child or friend requires work to keep the relationship viable and fresh.  We can’t expect to show and tell our spouse that we love them once and then neglect them and expect that relationship will survive or continue.  Farmers and gardeners know the necessity of cultivating and removing weeds and even watering their crop or garden if they expect to receive a good harvest.  A harvest that can not be gathered until the proper time has arrived.  We are God’s crop and our loved ones are His too but also ours.  God wants us to partner with Him in doing His Work and accomplishing His Will in the lives of others.  He wants us to enjoy fellowship with Him as much as He enjoys fellowship with us as He and we do His Work as we continue down the road of life each day.  That is His Goal and Dream for each of us.  But, again, He will never force us into such a relationship.  It has to be our choice made by our own free will and His help is only given when invited and sought.

Daniel Webster was once asked, “Mr. Webster, what is the most sobering, searching thought that ever entered your mind?” Without hesitancy, the staunch statesman replied, “My personal accountability to God.”

It is so easy to fall into our daily routines without regard or thought of God’s constant influence and involvement in our lives.  Every beat of our heart, every step or thought or word we speak all are because of God’s Grace and involvement.  When tragedy or hardship comes, we try to fix or resolve situation ourselves involving as few others as possible, including God.  Only considering going to God when all other options fail or when know no other options will help.  

BUT CHRIST WANTS US TO GO TO HIM FIRST! WE DESPERATELY NEED TO GO TO HIM FIRST! No one has ever regretted going to God in prayer first before making major decisions or before responding to a major life event or situation.   But everyone has one of more regrets from trying to deal with such first before reaching out to God.  Why is that?    Maybe we are afraid or expect God will respond too slowly.   Maybe we are afraid we won’t like or agree with His response.   Maybe we simply want to see if we are smart and strong enough to successfully respond alone.  Pride fools us into thinking we can and should.  We really don’t like to rely on others and don’t feel successful until we accomplish alone our goals. 

Well, forgive me for keep repeating this but is vitally important to remember that God deeply desires regular fellowship with us, but also to reveal Himself to us.  Yet, He knows we are not able to receive that fellowship without proper preparation and mind and soul change.  We simply are blind and deaf to Him until we allow Him to open our eyes and ears and souls.  Sometimes it does take a life change or tragedy to do that.  Sometimes it takes removing some distractions from our lives to do that.  Sometimes it takes a message or sermon or insights from a friend to do that.  But whatever it takes, the blessing from going to God often and first are beyond our needs and hopes because they first wait for God’s best instead of settling for our best attempts. 

God often seems to be late, but His timing is perfect and never late or ineffective.  We would do well to find an accountability partner to remind us of this and confront us when we are weak or discouraged or going down a wrong path trying to go ahead of God.  TO REMIND US THAT GOD NEVER FAILS!  HE NEVER HAS AND NEVER WILL!  AMEN?   AMEN!!

Are you in a dry and barren place today? Drink deeply of the Spirit and be refreshed through worship.

“Worry and worship are mutually exclusive.”  John Blanchard

If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 511 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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