The Great Shepherd

Psalms 23 vs 1

"The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not be in want."

I hear people say it quite often but what exactly do we mean when we say the 'Lord is my Shepherd' ?  When we quote that line, two things must come to mind. Firstly, if we truly mean what we say then we must understand that if the Lord is our Shepherd, then we should be trusting Him to lead us. The sheep goes where ever the Shepherd goes.
As the Lord Himself says in John 10 vs 27, " My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."
Sheep only follow the voice of the one that leads, because the one who leads is their protector. The one who leads is their provider and the one who leads gives shelter to them. When we choose the Lord to lead us, he will do as the rest of the Psalm says,

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.

 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."  ~ Psalm 1 vs 1 - 6

That is what a shepherd does for his sheep. He does for them what they cannot do for themselves. Their total dependency is on him for their entire livelihoods. Restoration comes through his guidance. Choose carefully who will lead you into all righteousness, so all the days of your life goodness and mercy shall follow you, that even in the presence of enemies you have no need to worry because your cup overflows.
The second aspect to consider when looking at the Shepherd is that he not only leads but that he also disciplines. So, how does the Shepherd discipline the sheep ? When a sheep wanders off on its own, the Shepherd looks for it and 'disciplines' it by breaking it's legs, so it never again goes astray. The same principle apply to us when we wander off on our own thinking we have no need for God, the great Shepherd will pursue us and 'discipline' will come our way. Let's be obedient to his leading. He will be glorified in us and we will be blessed in him.

Remember not every difficult situation is from the enemy as many people would like to think. There are those circumstances that God will allow in our lives to makes us stronger and to build more capacity for the work of the Spirit in our lives. And then there are those circumstances that we may face that will be our time of 'disciplining'', where the Lord will teach us what we need to learn because we've been disobedient to his leading. As the saying goes 'take it with a pinch of salt' and don't blame God when we're the ones who've messed up. But this isn't about the pinching of salt, sometimes the salt is added to cleanse  wounds. So allow the cleansing to take place as we learn to accept that it was our fault when we disobeyed his calling and went our own way.
The breaking of a person is to teach us that we should always heed the call of the great Shepherd when he calls out to us in order to build us and shapes us into being better sons and daughters of God.

Today, allow Psalm 23 to speak into your life. That you may truly know the leading the great Shepherd simply because we know his voice. The voice of the master - our Lord Jesus Christ. When he calls - heed.

Blessings,

Shane. 

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