Christian Devotional Journal – Ministry Resource Source
DIVINE DELAYS
Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.”Exodus 13:17
RECOMMENDED READING: ACTS 10:6-10 “3 6 Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. 7 After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. 8 So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.”
COMMENTS: Have you ever encountered a detour while traveling or a detour in planned work? A neighbor or family member needed some help or a tool or some guidance or council, causing a disruption or delay in completing in process tasks or work. Granted, some tasks come with a commitment or obligation or time constraint that requires asking disruption to be put on hold until a task is completed and then will get our focus. Some such tasks include spending time with family and children.
If work consistently gets priority over family, that becomes unhealthy for them and us, usually later bringing regrets for what should have been if we had permitted delay or distraction to have needed priority of our time.
God brings distractions into our lives for a greater purpose. That purpose is to teach us obedience and sharper skills in hearing and responding to His voice and nudging. Skills in trusting Him to redeem time so will still complete important tasks after completing the distraction He has called and put in front of us to complete first.
A son or daughter needs help with their homework or a few minutes of your time to spend with them in evening when you were planning on mowing the lawn or sweeping the floors or just wanting to sit down and relax and read the newspaper or watch a favorite evening program.
When we sacrifice our plans and wants for Him, He is always faithful in His own way to us. Faithful to redeem time sacrificed and faithful to bring eternal reward and blessing. Take a few minutes and reflect on such times. Times you missed such opportunity and times you did obey and blessing that followed.
God’s grace brings do overs and repeated such opportunities but those opportunities will become less frequent if we say no to them too many times. God will honor even our poor choices but there will be regrets and consequences for disobedience like there will be blessings for obedience.
Father’s day was very special for me this year. My son-in-law gave me a special card of gratitude for taking time to council and help him during a recent difficult time. Our daughter too did the same. Then our son called. He lives some distance away but his call too was so memorable and special to me.
A parent carries burdens for their children especially when they encounter life problems and crisis. We would rather they be spared but truth is life’s problems are necessary to exercise and strengthen spiritual muscles. Muscles of faith and obedience. Muscles of fellowship and love for Christ.
In the autumn of my life, I am becoming more keenly aware of brevity of life but also how precious family is and time with them is. How precious it is to be the life example and be accessible to them. How precious such a close relationship and how important it is to have a genuine relationship with Christ and show by example that relationship with any and all encounter each day.
This time of Covid 19 isolation and disruptions have devastated businesses with loss of business and families with loss of income, but the importance of families working together has been a wonderful outcome. When families rediscover how God provides just enough and builds our faith in Him and in each other is also a wonderful thing. He never seems to provide early, which we prefer, but just in time, way late in our minds. He provides what we need, but withholds everything we want.
Well, all too often I discover my wants are not healthy nor are beneficial or lasting. Better to be denied satisfying my wants than to acquire them and discover the added burden they cause and how quickly their value evaporates too.
Wasting resources of time and money on fleeting pleasures and possessions that quickly demand our attention to maintain becomes an all too common consequences. By contrast, when we use our resources of time and money more wisely and conservatively, we discover that during crisis or great need in our family or in other’s lives, we have sufficient resource to aid and minister to them.
Tithing is such a tool to help discover the truth of this mystery. When we tithe our gross income, result is learning how to say no to our wants and live a more modest lifestyle that equips us well for difficult times and enables us to do ministry in good and bad times while providing for our needs too. Likewise, a lifestyle of giving helps us be willing to accept help in our times of need from others.
Exodus 13:17 “17 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt:”
This verse from Exodus gives a clue that God led Moses and the Israelites out of Egypt via a detour instead of through the land of the Philistines. Preparation time was needed. Mt. Sinai was needed to receive the 10 commandments. Even Moses and Aaron needed some preparation too.
So many examples in scripture and in our own lives to remind us that God is faithful and has a divine and wonderful purpose in all things He allows in our lives – good and bad, enjoyable and painful, helpful and harmful. So, the next time you and I encounter a bump in the road or a road block, let’s open ourselves for God to show us what He wants us to do and save the question “why” to be answered in God’s time instead of ours. AMEN? AMEN!
“Let me remind you that this is God’s universe, and He is doing things His way. You may think you have a better way, but you don’t have a universe to rule.”J. Vernon McGee
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
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 