[ecko_quote source="Psalms 23:2-3"]He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake[/ecko_quote]
As we seen in our previous devotion the first two verses of twenty third Psalm. Today, we will focus our devotion on next few verses. Before we can ever go out on our own, we must learn to follow where He leads us. He leadeth me beside the still waters (V2). In the natural, turbulent waters would look a whole lot more exciting and appealing to us, but a sheep is so dumb he can drown himself trying to wet his whistle at the edge of turbulent waters.
We learn to obey the Shepherd as we consent to be led by still waters at first. A young sheep, just learning his place in the fold, cannot handle big meetings or large campaigns without being beaten by his own swelling self- importance.
He restoreth my soul (V3)- The unrestored soul generally blocks the best God has for us because it goes by feelings instead of faith. Often when we say “I don’t feel led,” to do a certain thing, that’s our soul crying for attention, resenting the fact that it’s not in charge of proceedings. The soul cannot run out and do its own thing when it is submitting to the Good Shepherd, and it's free choices die hard.
When the Good Shepherd restores our soul, He brings it into its proper relationship, subordinate to the Holy Spirit. Feelings must be ignored, for the most part. Even feelings of blessings and the feeling of anointing are strictly second best, because they detract our attention from the leading of the Good Shepherd. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is no longer soulish enslavement to feelings, there is the release of spiritual liberty (2 Cor 3:17)
Once the Good Shepherd has restored my soul to its proper place, He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for name’s sake (v3). There is only one way to become righteous, and that is to become identified with the one who can be our righteousness inside us ( I Cor 1:30). If I became righteous on my own I had have to glory in my righteousness. That’s what I did back in the days when I had myself fooled into thinking I could somehow be in a partnership with God. I was trying to steal a little glory from Him. But God wants all the glory for Himself, and He gives all the blessings to His people. When it comes right down to it, I need blessings every day, but I would not know what to do with glory if I had a whole warehouse full of it. Glory belongs to God, No one else can handle it.
To be continued...
