He Makes Me Lie Down

During church campout this past weekend one of the messages was about shepherding our flock. There are lots of flocks, it can be mothers with little children, dads with the whole family, church leaders ect. . . and we were challenged to follow Christ’s example in patience and longsuffering and not lead in anger or reaction or bitterness or from an empty soul.

Since then, I have been meditating on the first part of Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want\lack. He maketh me lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul . . .” And God brought to my mind that He is like a mother here 😊 and He makes us or desires that we lie down and rest as we do with our little people who get tired and crabby during the day. They need to be guided to a place to rest.

Now, we all know that as adults, it is not so much the physical here that we need rest from, more importantly our hearts need to be brought to a place of rest in God. As we do not LIVE by bread alone, so we do not live by sleep alone. We need the rest of soul to function as a child of God . . . that makes a HUGE difference in our daily walk! It’s the difference of not becoming bitter about something, but rather being able to trust God about it and let it go. It’s the difference is a lot of things . . . It’s what makes the difference of acting like a child of God or a child of the devil . . .

To be a child of God we need to obey . . . My little ones are required to take a nap. As adults, God gives us a choice, but we all know that if we want to remain as God’s child, we need to follow in obedience His requirement to rest our soul in Him. To set aside a bit of time, to read and reflect His goodness and His glory, to be reminded of His love, to be refreshed and make sure I am abiding in Him so that my leaves do not wither in the heat of the day . . . Yes, quiet time\devotions with the LORD is a must EVERY day.

“He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul.” What a good Shepherd! What a loving Heavenly Father! He KNOWS that I NEED this so very much. And as His child He requires that I get the spiritual food that I need each day to sustain me and keep me healthy . . . To have that abundant life, that vibrant shine. God is so good.