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September 28, 2023

Week 4 — Thursday: Our Tender Shepherd

Psalm 23 

This Psalm is a wonderful passage to memorize and to use in our private times of worship. It is good to be reminded that the Shepherd of our life, the Captain of our ship, our Life Coach, is the Wonderful Counselor, the Almighty God, the Everlasting and Eternal Father, and the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). And that is not a complete list. When you pray through this Psalm, remind yourself of the many names of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13). What else do we need in life when this great God and Savior is the Shepherd of our lives? 

Because He is the Shepherd of our lives, we have everything that we need. Our Shepherd leads us to rest in quiet streams (Psalm 23:2) and restores and renews our souls (Psalm 23:3). Our Shepherd, because He knows what is best for our lives, may lead us through the dark valleys of life, but will never leave us or desert us (Hebrews 13:5). And though the valleys may be dark and terrifying, we can have confidence that this journey is not for our destruction, but for His kingdom’s good (Jeremiah 29:11-14) and the struggle short lived (2 Corinthians 4:17-18). 

The Lord has birthed us to run a great race with Him and with His help (Hebrews 12:1-2). He has not abandoned us to live this life alone. He is walking with us every step of the way. This Psalm is meant to comfort us and encourage us through every day of our life and through every circumstance we face. This world is not meant to be our home. We are just temporary travelers, looking forward to the day when the Lord brings us into His presence and we hear Him say, “Welcome home! Well done!” (Matthew 25:1; John 14:2). 

—CONTRIBUTED BY LONNIE SKILES, PASTOR OF NEXT STEPS—

One Comment on “Week 4 — Thursday: Our Tender Shepherd

Christine Pence
September 28, 2023 at 12:31 pm

Psalm 23 is one of my favorite Psalms it’s short and sweet but I love what the word say I know a sister in Christ who feels a strong bond or connection to Psalm 23 she says with the Lord God and I do too sometimes though my favorite song is 91 but long story short this is an amazing one and it is good that God is tender and merciful and kind and very loving it makes him sad and upset that the world is the way it is and its status even people who are lukewarm Christians or people that are on the fence unsure if they want to follow God or not it does upset him and yes the Bible does talk about the wrath of God and God’s righteous anger upon this world and that time will come in the Great tribulation but before that God is showing us his great and tender mercies it’s an amazing thing what he does an amazing feat I don’t expect every Christian did to accept everything I say because everyone has their viewpoint because of so many different denominations out there in the Christian communities as a whole but me personally it makes me sad and sometimes my own soul feel sad because God gets upset because of the status of this world and lukewarm Christians I know people don’t like to believe there are lukewarm Christians but God’s not happy with them and he says he’ll spit them out of his mouth in the book of Revelation just makes me really really sad that not all Christians are ready to go in the rapture 🙁 cuz if you read the scriptures you can see it clearly it’s just heartbreaking to know I myself have struggled with lukewarm Christianity so I should know but I know that I’m a child of God and I am trying to do much better trying to help myself through the word of God and through God’s will in obedience I recently had a sister in Christ send me an email and she said to me thanks for listening to Jesus or something like that and I felt really good that day for what she had said to me anyway Psalm 23 has a special significance in my life I’ll never forget in 2020 when God gave my sister on my mom’s side of the family A vision to read Psalm 124 I have read that song till this very day and it was during a time when my enemies and my apartment complex and the enemies that served the enemy or causing me hassles and I was worried about losing my apartment because I literally have no else to go and God gave me victory in 2020 and I am forever thankful for him for that God bless you all I hope you have a great day I hope you’ll continue sending these until the time of this is over I’m really enjoying these God bless and thanks

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