How often do we see the words of Psalms 23 without actaully taking them in. It’s one of those passages that we can recite part of and find no meaning in it at all. You could say it’s overused, yet isn’t it used often because it holds meaning? Because it has power? Because it is truth?
Due to the overuse of the pasage I wasn’t suprised when someone on my team was hesitant to give it to me as a piece of encouragment from the Lord. Yet, she followed through with what she felt the Lord was speaking and gave me the verses:
“The Lord is my sheperd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.”
She told me that she felt God really wanted to remind me that I did have a resting place in him. That he wanted me to rest and to find that rest, in him. I took her words, contemplated them a bit, and stored them away in my mind, trusting they would be meaningful in God’s timing.
It was no coincidence that this verse was given to me day one of two long travel days from Ukraine to Chile where God was calling me into some big shoes. It was just the night before that God gave a me a call for those coming days. A call I knew was going to be tiring, but was willing to take on. I was trusting that I would not pour out without God continously refilling me. But I found myself, after 4 flights, plopped down in Chile utterly drained with no resting time in sight. I was completely exhausted physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually but I needed and wanted to be present with my squad for our LDW (leadership development weekend- like a mini debrief). Not to mention the beginning of ministry was right around the corner.
Now, sitting here on day two of being at our ministry site I find myself still trying to figure out what it looks like to rest in the midst of being called into a larger purpose by God himself, and still working to process so many things. How do I rest from my own mind? How do I rest when I feel like I have so much to do? I let my mind wander because I feel I’m too tired, mentally, to even open my Bible, and find myself drowning in thoughts that overwhelm me even more. Knowing I needed to seek out God in his word, I continued reading Jeremiah this morning, the book I have been working through. Little did I know, God would speak into me exactly what I needed to hear this morning:
“My people have been lost sheep… They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place.”
Jeremiah 50:6
“The people of Israel are oppressed, and the people of Judah as well. All their captors hold them fast, refusing to let them go. Yet their Redeemer is strong; the Lord Almighty is his name. He will vigorously defend their cause so that he may bring rest to their land.”
Jeremiah 50:34
More often than not I find myself as that sheep, wandering by myself, trusting that I will be able to find a safe place for myself, a place to lie down and a place to drink fresh water from. I forget that I already have a resting place set out for me. I am too prideful, and refuse to allow that place to be already established for me. I look for rest from the spiritual battles of life in sleep and in community and in things like music and art that are gifts from God yet can only be fuflilling if I first am seeking true rest in the Father’s arms.
I find myself comfortable in calling God my Lord, my Friend, my Father, my Confidence, or my Healer; yet my defenses go up when a verse like Jeremiah 50:34 identifies him as my Defender, my Redeemer, and my Resting Place. This morning though, he met me as those things, I allowed him to guide me as my Sheperd and found myself in the humble place of a sheep. And I found his grace, his love, and his rest abounding more than ever.
