Christian Devotional Journal – Ministry Resource Source
FEAR NOT DARK DAYS
FEAR NOT DARK DAYS
Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. Psalm 42:5
38 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”
COMMENTS: Job is identified by Bible scholars as the oldest recorded book in the Old Testament. Of course, the story of creation in Genesis is older, but the time of writing down the story of Job is older than the book of Genesis.
That said, Job is considered a very important explanation and example showing us one of the important reasons who faithful followers suffer and endure tragedy as do unfaithful people. The difference isn’t that they endure hardship but the purpose of that hardship and way those followers manage and get through those hardships. Job shows us the importance of trusting and obeying God and leaning on the faith and trust He gives us and exercises in us by allowing us to endure hardship within limits.
Job also shows us the source of our troubles. That source is satan, who is limited by God in way and degree and durations of those troubles. Satan intends troubles to destroy us and shame God. God intends them to strengthen us and shame satan. Ultimately, our faithfulness will fulfill God’s purposes, including good for us and good to others who witness or are told about how we manage and deal with troubles that engulf us.
Dark days are never pleasant and we naturally will work to avoid them. But sooner or later they will find us anyway. Wise choices will avoid some and diminish the destruction and pain they bring.
But dark days need not be feared because:
1. Christ died so we can have a continuous relationship and walk with God all the time and everywhere.
2. The Holy Spirit is ready and willing to dwell with and abide with each us all the time and everywhere is we only invite and welcome Him in our lives and then listen to and follow His council.
3. We have countless stories like Job and Noah and Daniel and Joseph and David and Esther and … The list goes on. We have countless examples throughout history and also in our own lives and community to also show us the benefit of putting our faith in Christ and following His council and lead.
God reveals Himself with the Father, with the Son – Jesus Christ, and with the Holy Spirit. We can rely on the Holy Spirit to help us understand scripture and God’s voice directly instructing us in our minds and souls and through wise council of others. We can rely on Him to also give us discernment to distinguish satan’s lies and temptations and deceptions from God’s voice and wise council. He does so always in a way that will always find agreement in His Word. By contrast, satan will fool us into thinking scripture is “old fashioned” or incorrect or not applicable or …, When that happens, warnings will sound in our conscience and soul and in our minds too if we stop and listen and heed those warnings.
Reflect on how often we ignore those warnings because we simply don’t want to resist temptation. Doing so is dangerous and foolish. The consequences are clear in those who did so, like Saul, David, Judas, Peter, … Peter and David heeded God’s call to repentance and avoided ultimate price of sin while Judas and King Saul suffered cost, eternal judgment, for disobedience.
Even successful people endure dark times and associated depression or loneliness from dark times. Charles Spurgeon was a highly gifted and successful preacher responsible for salvation of millions of people through his sermons in crusade and even today through his writings. Yet Spurgeon endured depression which became so crippling that he had to retreat and avoid crowds and opportunities to preach at times to recover.
Yet, even Christ had to retreat alone to renew His strength. We also have access to the infinite source of strength and power and wisdom, but that strength and power and wisdom is only in limited supply in ourselves. We have an infinite resource but only have a small container in us to hold it. We were never intended to manage life only using from that reservoir or container. God intends that we frequently seek and tap into His supply.
Think of it this way. We can hold a breath for minute or two but can only live if we continually take air into our lungs and exhaust back out of our lungs. We eat and drink nourishment and water to sustain life but we can’t eat or drink enough to sustain life very long. Likewise, spiritual nourishment can only strengthen and nourish spiritual life when we receive from the source directly often, even more often than daily.
We have the mistaken impression that godly people don’t suffer from times of spiritual or emotional darkness. But David, the psalmist, certainly did. Three times in the psalms he asked himself, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me?” (Psalm 42:5, 11, 43:5) But he, and other psalmists, knew God was the Light who could dispel the darkness: “But I hope in Your word” (Psalm 119:81, 114, 147). And the apostle Paul reminds us that dark times can lead to hope, and hope “does not disappoint” because God’s love has been “poured out in our hearts” (Romans 5:3-5).
“When darkness descends, don’t fear. Rather, hope in God—His Word and His love—to bring you into the light.
In the darkness of our miseries, the grace of God shines more brightly.”John Calvin
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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