A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Proverbs 17:17
RECOMMENDED SCRIPTURE JOB 2:11-13 – ” 11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. For they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him, and to comfort him. 12 And when they raised their eyes from afar, and did not recognize him, they lifted their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven. 13 So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.”
COMMENTS: When tragedy comes, it is family and friends that give us the most meaningful comfort and strength and encouragement because our relationship with them and their caring attitude and compassion fills the need they have that no words can. Job’s 3 friends did well to sit with him for 7 days crying with him and showing compassion and support. It was during that time, as Job suffered and grieved, they did the most good for him. But they, as do we, often feel that is not enough and try to fill the gap by saying words that often make things worse even if sincere. In Job’s case, they decided such tragedy and suffering must be a judgment for sin from God to him and his family either because of his sin or a sin of one or more in his family. They knew Job and his family and didn’t know of any such sin but concluded there must be a hidden sin, and kept trying to press Job to confess and repent of that sin. It took 7 days to come to that conclusion, and to their credit, they didn’t conclude that in the beginning and did stay 7 days with him
But instead of praying with him seeking God’s purpose and help and revelation, they tried to resolve the mystery of Job’s suffering with their own reasoning.
You and I can’t not comprehend nor identifying the reasons why tragedy comes to some more frequently and more severely than to others. Why some openly sinful people seem spared while more righteous and kind people endure so much? The bible is full of both examples. Yet the only scriptures that apply well to both relate to reality that rain falls on the just and unjust alike (Matthew 5:45). Then again, the story of Job also reveals the situation when satan exercises limited freedom he has to torment and that God permits a limited level of suffering to strengthen and prepare His faithful for a defined purpose.
Well, all this is true and applies one or more times for each of us, but bottom line is that God has ultimate authority to do as He pleases and even though He loves us and has our best interest at heart, He chooses how and when to include suffering in our lives to prepare us for His greater and eternal work. Anyone who has worked long and hard to reach a lofty goal like education to train for a career or discipline in training for an athletic competition knows the pain and sacrifice necessary to reach their goal and succeed. God provides the resources and skills and talents but we must provide the “elbow grease”, the blood and sweat of exercise and study and time and work. We must pay the price of pain and sacrifice to partner with God in working His Plan. A Plan to bless us and to bless many others through us.
Consider how many Joni Earickson Tata has blessed and led to Christ through 50+ years of suffering as a paraplegic and cancer survivor? How many did Corrie Ten Boom lead to Christ as a Nazi concentration camp survivor and only surviving member of her beloved family? How many have been comforted by witnessing how we endured the loss of a parent or spouse or child and difference Christ made in giving us comfort and hope during that time of loss. Enduring loss gives us credibility in comforting others enduring similar loss.
If Job’s friends had enduring suffering like his, they would have realized there may be other reasons why Job was suffering and given him hope there was a light at the end of that dark tunnel and God was there with him to walk those remaining steps with him. They would have prayed that Job see and feel God’s presence and be encouraged. They would have also prayed that God please bring this time of suffering to a close as quickly as His Will permits and use this time of suffering to encourage and bless others and to give Job a greater mission to fulfill for Him. These words of prayer would have encouraged Job and who knows how they might have influenced God’s timing and reaction.
But God did fulfill His purpose and satan was soon quieted and Job’s time of suffering soon ended. Job was given the explanation he sought. But Job’s 3 friends were shamed instead of rejoicing with him when this dark page was turned. But even their shame served the purpose of teaching them more about God’s ways and purposes and Will.
By having Job’s story recorded in scripture, we too are added to the countless multitude of people so taught through the ages from Job’s generation until ours.
So when you encounter those who believe exclusively in the “name it – claim it” theology or believe suffering only comes out of a lack of faith or a punishment for sin, remind them of the story of Job or the story of Joni or the story of Corrie to remind them there may be another reason known only to God.
The journey of faith and trust in God is at times bumpy and sometimes dark but always best for us and never taken alone without Him there beside and ahead of and behind us all at the same time. Satan will do his worst to blind us from seeing and feeling God’s presence and discourage us so we feel helpless and weak and lost and doomed. BUT GOD DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY AND WILL USE SUFFERING SATAN INFLICTS TO BUILD SPIRITUAL MUSCLES EQUIPPED FOR GREATER SERVICE OF ETERNAL VALUE AND BENEFIT IF WE TRUST HIM AND LEAN ON HIM INSTEAD OF OURSELVES! AMEN? AMEN!
If you know someone who is suffering, take the love-leap. Sit with them, pray with them, write to them, take a meal to them, babysit their kids. A friend loves at all times. If you don’t know what to say, maybe the best needed is to simply cry with them and love them.
“Our job is to love people we don’t have to love.” Keith Miller
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 542 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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