“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. …” ~ Psalm 23, NASB.

Following the Good Shepherd, Jehovah-Raah, requires complete surrender that trusts Him to be God and Father, leading us to the place of His desire, designed for the glory of His name. Faith in God to be the Good Shepherd for a life of abundance despite the issues of life in this world realizes that He has a purpose in all things. Resting with surrender that trusts His purpose equips us to find in His pastures the resources He provides for our growth and maturity as His children, made in His image. Equipped to trust in the Lord and do good, in His pastures, we find opportunity to make a difference in the situations of life. With heart attuned to Him…

“He leads me beside the still and restful waters”

Surrender to trust in the Lord to do the good He has for us produces a faith toward Him that equips us to find His rest in the midst of difficult experiences. Jesus exemplified this when He slept in the bow of a boat while His disciples panicked (Matthew 8:18-27). Jesus fully trusted His destiny to God, knowing God would fulfill His good word to Him; so much so that He was able to rest in the midst of life’s literal storm.

Temptation to panic is a sign of one’s need to be still and know God. Seeking Him to reveal the faith we must possess in Him concerning our situations will find Him responding to lead us to the place of still and restful waters in the midst of hardship. Hope filled with earnest expectation that God will be God even in the storm, is the ingredient of His Spirit at work in us that leads us to His rest. This restfulness of Spirit resides in us even though we often see the rushing waves of the river nearby and feel the winds of life’s storms around us. Despite such torrents, God faithfully provides a place of safety and security. Finding us completely reliant upon Him…

“He refreshes and restores my soul – my life”

When storms come to life, they tend to change the dynamics of the life we know. Those times can make it difficult to press forward. The solution is to find His hand and trust The Good Shepherd, who faithfully leads to green pastures and quiet waters. Refreshed in His presence, restoration comes as …

“He leads me in the paths of righteousness…not for my earning it, but for His name’s sake.”

Following the Lord requires faith to trust Him to get us to the place He has for us in life’s situations. Scripture tells us that, “A man’s mind plans his way as he journeys through life, But the Lord directs his steps and establishes them” (Proverbs 16:9, AMP). When we are truly following the Lord, He establishes our steps, making them effective.

There is always eternal purpose for the paths upon which God puts our feet. Trusting and following Him step by blessed step, with faith that knows His sovereignty that works good things out of all we face, will lead to the glory of His name and fulfillment of His purpose and plan.

Trust in Jehovah-Raah, Beloved. He will bring you through this life with a testimony of your experience of His peaceful pastures. He, whose thoughts are higher than our own and whose ways are beyond our comprehension, faithfully astounds us as we see His glory come out of experiences that are unfathomable to our finite minds.