‘He Leads Me’

“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters.”  Psalm 23:2

When I am reading God’s Word and I run across a verse like this, and I see that God is essentially saying the same thing twice, I need to pay special attention and read it again until I understand the instructions He is giving me for today.

The fact is that when God speaks, I really need to pay attention and listen!  But when I come across a verse where He repeats Himself, I’d do well to listen very well.

As I proceeded to look at this verse several times, at first I pretty much saw a verse that seems pretty straight forward, which leads me to ask myself; ‘What could be so important in this verse that I have missed?

Have you ever finished a Bible reading or a Morning Devotional and felt that you pretty much came up empty on an application of what you understood from the Scripture you read?  Don’t feel alone, it happens to me too.  The difference maker for me always comes back to  Isaiah 55:11 where it reads: ” So shall My Word be, which goes out of My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall certainly do what I sent it to do.”

Whenever I read the Word of God it will never return back to God, empty. The Word of God is spiritual food and drink, purposely given, and measured out by God Himself to me, Marty, whenever I read it.

“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters.”  Psalm 23:2

God makes me to lie down where I can eat and drink good food.   The Hebrew word for the verb, maketh means, to counterbalance, compose, equalize.  What this means to me is that God sees me in the midst of a hectic irrational world losing my temper, frustrated, overwhelmed, running out of gas, if you will, and He takes me to where I can adjust, and counter the out of control world I live in, and gives me food and drink of His good nourishment.

I do a good job of making sure that my physical self is well nourished. It’s important that we eat a well balanced meal several times throughout our day. It brings nourishment that our physical bodies use to maintain and run these complex systems.  Sometimes I forget to eat what is considered nourishment and I eat snacks.  Even though I know I should fuel my body with good food and drink, I compromise and do it anyway.

The same thing applies to my spiritual nourishment. I often take in just enough of what I think accounts to good food and drink. However, as the day goes along, I find myself ill-equipped to meet the challenges, and I discover that I am spiritually malnourished.  As a result, I become tired, sleepy, grumpy….all effects of the physical part of me that has taken advantage of the opportunity to shift all the attention to itself.

When I am well nourished spiritually, I am able to walk uprightly. I am in touch with God daily, and as a result, I am able to feed off His Wisdom, Guidance to help me along the path.

By reading God’s Word, the Holy Spirit is free to balance, and make the adjustments to keep me on track, and a vessel worthy to be used by God.   And so, God doesn’t just provide my physical needs, but my spiritual needs as well.  He truly becomes my Shepherd, and as a sheep, I am more likely to trust Him, wherever He happens to be leading me today.  But remember, wherever you’re at today, the Good Shepherd is near by, waiting to  bring you food and drink and rest, before He is ready to move you along.

He makes sure that no matter who you are, or where your at, you will have the opportunity to be spiritually nourished.

“He leadeth me beside the still waters.”  Psalm 23:2

The verb, “Leadeth” in the Hebrew means to gently guide you to the water.

God never forces you but gives you what you need, and allows you to choose if you want to eat and drink or not.  He is gentle, allowing you to make the final choice.

Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd and He is right here with you.  “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”

He is leading me everyday.  I have the opportunity to read His word, hear His voice, and feed upon His wisdom. It is an opportunity, but God will not force you to eat of His good fruit.  If you desire to eat of the rotten fruit of this world you can, but it can make you sick and malnourished.

Pornography, television, money, your job, education, sex, and almost anything in this world including some good things such as Christian Books can be used to replace God and His nourishment.

Bottom line is anything that causes your way of thinking to veer away from listening to God, is of the world.

We need to go back to God and the Scriptures.  He will lead you to the truth but you have to decide to trust Him and what He says over what the world says.  He will never guide you in the wrong direction.

Maybe you’ve finished reading this post, and see a little of yourself in the way of what you’ve read this morning, and all seems so gloomy and dark, even hopeless.

You keep looking ahead tonight hoping a change of scenery might do the trick…maybe dining out tonight, maybe picking up a half gallon of your favorite ice cream, maybe dropping by the Bookstore and picking up another book to ‘put things in perspective’; when what you really need is to come to the Lord, and let Him lead you back to the place where you can be satisfied and filled. Then, everything else will be well adjusted and made right.

Don’t put it off, go to your ‘prayer closet’ and seek Him, while He may be found.