The Lord Is My Shepherd...

Psalms 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he restores my soul.
He guides 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 love will follow me,
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the
Lord
forever.

Well, this was the verse that was the scripture for the church sermon on Sunday yesterday. Truly, this verse is really wonderful and we as Christians always come back to this verse to reflect upon how good God has been in their lives, blessing them richly and also in times of distress, the verse is a source of comfort as it reminds us that the Lord is our shepherd and will protect and guide us. Yesterday, the pastor spoke of how the Lord miraculously provided him with all his needs, protected him in a series of accidents and blessed him so much with a great family. This verse is one of my favourite verses as it is to many others, and it really is so awesome to know that God is there to protect and to guide us through such that we can have peace that transcends all understanding and have joy no matter what we face in life. We can lead such a wonderful life because God is our shepherd and has done so much for us. But, I guess, sometimes we tend to forget all these truths that God has put in the Bible for us in the hustle and bustle of daily life. And, I guess, this time the sermon sort of reminded of how we have such a great God would created the universe.

As they always say, we will never run out of things to learn from Bible verses, this sermon made me draw new lessons in life which by God’s grace again is so applicable to my currents situations. Although, I must say that now I’m starting to live life so joyfully already and really living life for God at a deeper level, and I feel so great and happy again. So anw, its been a real bonus this. I don’t know its hard to explain this feeling but I feel better than I’ve ever felt about my life right now and its all thanks to God. So, the lessons that I drew from the sermon was from the first line, that “I shall not be in want”, though in the mind I already knew what this meant, but truly as we prayed, God really let me understand this message to a deeper extent and it hit right at my heart as it was something I really needed to know.

I realised that, the Lord is truly the only thing we will ever need in our lives, coz He provides for all our needs and satisfies the desires of our hearts, and protects us. I realise that I should not in my heart want or desire for anything more for with God, I actually have everything even if I don’t have anything if you get what I mean. I mean, it doesn’t matter the houses we have, the cars, nice stuff and all the “necessities of life” as the world puts it, what really makes us able to live a full life is living for God and having a relationship with God. And, this brings me nicely to my point that, for the past two years, I’ve sort of been complaining about having no friends and stuff. I realise that, God provides with what I need, so that means that whatever I don’t have either I don’t realise I already have or God doesn’t think it’s the right time yet, in this case I’m talking about my complaint that I have no friends. So, it made me understand that I should already be content, because in Christ, I have all that I need and will have NOTHING more to WANT. Thus, it has now taught me not to desire any more of anything else but God alone, which is all I ever need.

And, that leads me to my other thought I had about friendships, in that I don’t know if I’m doing enough and can leave the rest to God and God’s will for my life, or if I’m trying to do more than that which is needed for me to do, or if I’m just not doing enough, in terms of my social life, i.e. friends. And, just like perhaps they say friendship is like water, that we just can’t live without it, I’m feeling I’m dying of thirst…but God truly is the one who gives us the living water that quenches our thirst forever. Therefore, I don’t need to necessarily desire friendship anymore.

But, my point anw is that, like the story of the two farmers who needed rain, but only one prepared for the rain, I wonder if I’m praying to God for friends and yet perhaps I’m not doing all I need to for God to bless me, and with enough faith, I should be prepared for God to bless me with friends. The trouble is how much is all I need to do for God to bless me? Right now, though I’m just praying that God shows me, but in that sense Sunday’s message in church perhaps was God trying to tell me that, I don’t need to do anything more for in God I will be given all I need, and I need to have faith and believe that God will provide me with what I need in His time. Again, now I know, that I don’t need to want anymore for God is great and grants me all I need. For that, I’m grateful and thankful and will not need to lament about anything no more, which explains why I guess from last week all the way till now, I’m been much happier that ever, being joyful in all circumstances. In fact, last week, everything went relatively smoothly, perhaps with only small things popping up here and there last week. But, overall, last week was great after I finally by God’s grace and strength, I managed to live up to the “joy despite circumstances” motto the whole of last week. And, God, gave me things to be happy about even if at times they were small things and when things weren’t at their best, God made it such that I didn’t realise the times when I was alone and nothing really bothered me.

Here's a brief few events last week that really showed God’s presence with me and how He helped me and made me able to rejoice in the Lord no matter what the situation. Monday’s Student Council Investiture last week, meant that our break in the morning was taken up and so less time for me to be alone, plus on Monday, for the most part, I was not alone which was great and I believe it was the hand of God in it. Tuesday and Wednesday were not bad and even with more alone time than on Monday, I managed to still be generally quite happy. Here and there, people were friendlier and some small good things made me happy enough, and I managed to truly have joy despite circumstances as I had faith that God would see me through that week that I would be happy and joyful and truly last week I was. Then, on Thursday at least I wasn’t alone during probably maths lesson again and the day was fine I guess. The better part though was that, I had A Level Chinese Listening Comprehension which was easy though a little tricky but on that day, I WAS FINALLY FINSHED WITH CHINESE FOREVER…!!!!

And, Friday too went very smoothly and all. So, all in all I had a smooth week last week and it was all God who made the week so good and fruitful and joyful and made things go oh so smoothly. Linking this to Psalms 23, now, I truly know that God is my shepherd and will see me through all things. The whole of last weeks happenings showed me that and now I have a greater conviction than ever of God’s awesome presence in my life always. We indeed have a great God who is worthy to be praised and I’m happy about that, and that’s all.

Finally, now I am very sure that God will see me through the A Levels which are drawing ever closer just coz He’s God yea, and I’m confident I can do well and get into the course I want to get into. So, I mean I just wanna say that everyone out there, just trust the Lord for He is our shepherd and will bring us through everything in life for He is God.

Lord, you are my shepherd, I just commit everything into your hands oh Lord, I love you Lord, Amen.