Restore my Soul

Today Lord, I choose to rest in you.

Cape wearers unite. In our efforts to find righteousness and to serve our families, our churches, our employers and let's face it ourselves and our own desires we often look past God's gift of rest. We all look at Psalm 23 as the reading at a funeral. But here is what it says in the first few verses.

"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. " Psalm 23:1-3

If the Lord is my shepherd than he is guiding me. If I am a little sheep under his care, I go where I he tells me to go, I rest when he tells me to rest. When you are under the watchful eye of your Shepherd then you have the peace to have rest. You don't have to be on watch because He does that for you. You don't have to fret about things trying to harm you because he will protect you.

I don't have to want for anything, because he provides all of my care. ALL, I don't have to go hunt and I don't have to fight with my fellow sheep for it because there is more than enough for all of us. I don't have to worry about bills, I don't have to worry whether there will be enough food, I don't need to worry that we have clothes for the winter. I trust the great Shepherd to provide for me.

Here is the kicker, he makes me lie down in green pastures. Not dried out, nasty winter grass, not in briar's, not on a desert, on green pastures. He makes me. He wants to look out over the flock and see who has anxiety and who has trust in him by seeing who of us can rest in him and who of us have to keep pacing in the beautiful surroundings he has provided for us. I imagine him looking out over the entire flock and looking for the sleeping sheep and saying, yes my little one, bless you for trusting me enough to rest under my watchful care. I love to watch my children sleep, I can tell they are sleeping by their breathing pattern, I have rocked them and held them enough to know what their breathing sounds like when they are asleep. Then I can count today as a good day. They are peaceful, they are resting and they are safe. He does the same thing with us.

He leads us beside still waters. I know that there are times in my life that everything seems like a storm. Having experienced a few hurricanes I can almost imagine the winds coming fiercely from one direction, then the eye of the storm passes over and everything is dead calm, then the back side of the storm goes over with the winds just as fierce in the opposite direction. He wants me to find still waters. Chip Judd teaches, "Small rock, Big Wave...not the rocks fault". If something small comes into my life and it feels like a tidal wave, there is something else playing into it. If I don't walk in offense, if I don't plow others fields, if I stay close to the flock and under the guidance of my Shepard, my wave will equal the size of the rock, or I may not ripple at all. What a blessing that would be.

He restores my soul. He created it, it is only He that can restore it. The only thing I have to do is stop long enough for him to talk to me. If I could quit hunting, quit wandering off, quit trying to get out of his sight, if I would just make time, he would be faithful to meet me and to restore my soul. When I have a restored soul, my flesh seems to line up, I have less aches and pains, less to "grumble" about and I walk in his restoration.

He guides me in paths of righteousness. I have talked to Him, read His word, allowed Him to restore my soul. I know his voice ever so slight if I have talked to him recently. I can feel his hand on my shoulder as I walk through the day because last we talked he had his hand there, whispering in my ear. I can line up with His path to righteousness because, I know Him. Just as I know the difference in my children's breathing, I know the voice of my Father. Because I have let him rock me to sleep, to smooth my ruffled hair, to hold my chin and look me in the face and say "Beautiful girl, I did it just for you so that you could crawl up into the palm of my hand at the end of the day and find rest in me".

Father, I thank you for those times of intimacy. Father, I know that you are faithful to meet me if I sit the frying pan and the phone down long enough to hear you. Father, you love me like no other and your only desire is to hear me say your name, to love you and to bless you. You created us to share your love, with everyone around us, but most importantly with you. Lord, I bless you, I choose to minister to you first. Lord, I thank you for seeking me out, for making me a part of your flock. I rest in your presence and I find trust in that place. Thank you Father, Lord, Creator of the Universe for your sacrifice of your Son to wash me clean. Thank you Lord that you look at me as a flawless sheep, under your guidance. Oh Lord, how I love you. All blessing and glory and praise. In Jesus Name. Amen.