Are You Following The Shepherd?
You have bedded me down in lush meadows, you find me quiet pools to drink from.
Psalm 23:2 Msg
The 23rd Psalm is a very comforting Psalm, in which David tells us that the Lord leads, feeds, guides and shields us. We can be confident that God will lead us in the path of righteousness, uprightness, and right standing with Him.
I believe that David is saying here that God leads each of us personally in the path that He has prepared us, a path that restores us in every way to the good God has for us. We as people are compared to sheep in this psalm.
Sheep are very passive and submissive by nature. Unlike donkeys, sheep are docile creatures. You see, a donkey has his own mind; he may come with you or he may not. You can beat him, pull on his harness, but that stubborn donkey may just sit down refusing to budge. He’s not going to move until he gets good and ready or until he can see where he’s going.
But sheep are different; they will follow the shepherd. They don’t need to know where the shepherd is leading them because they have blind trust in the shepherd.
The Lord is your Shepherd. He wants to bring you to a place where you don’t need anything, but this path requires you to trust Him even when you don’t fully understand where you are going.
I remember the time when we wanted to move from The Netherlands to America. People around us really thought we were crazy. How would our kids, then 9 and 11, be able to adjust? Naysayers kept coming at us with one discouraging thought after the other. But the time came that we took action and followed where we felt God was leading us.
There comes the moment that you must put your trust in the Lord.
So we obeyed God, and went to Joplin, Missouri. Later, we we had to pack our bags again to move to Tulsa to attend VBI bible school. The better way is God’s way. God’s way will provide more blessings in your life than ever before. At that time, we found out that Tulsa was where our provision was.
There were also times in our life where our choices were not in alignment with what God wanted. You may be in a time of struggle, being tempted to withdraw from everybody and go your own way, but the Lord is always ready to bring you back and lead you by His mighty hand. Although you are facing a stressful situation, God leads you to safety as a shepherd does his sheep.
If you do what God wants and sincerely follow Him, you will get to that green pasture and be well-fed. God has a purpose for you and He’s saying, “Just trust me.” You must follow the will of God for your life.
Remember, you are His precious lamb. Will you choose to trust God when your mind tells you to go your own way is the key to receiving blessings in your life? Now, that’s the choice-driven life!
Today’s Bible Reading:
Exodus 22-24; Eph 6; Psalm 109
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The Most Important Choice You Can Make:
Prayer for Salvation:
God in Heaven, I come to You in the name of Your Son, Jesus. I confess that I haven’t lived my life for You. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that He died on the cross and rose again from the dead so I might have a better life now and eternal life in heaven. Jesus, come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior. From this day forward, I’ll live my life for You to the best of my ability. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.
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Hi,Olga just read your Blog.very interested on trusting in God following the will of God.I am all the time trying to follow his will.I was praying this morning and all of a sudden i switched to heavenly prayer language and God gave me the interpation right then he said i know what you need before you even ask,boy did that make my day wonderful Bye Bye Charles.
That is awesome Charles. God is taking care of you. Those moments with the Lord are very precious! Keep going!
Olga, we had a similar time in our lives where we were told to move. It didn’t make any logical sense, especially since I had just given birth to our first baby boy. We were also being told to go directly into the torn up part of the U.S. from Hurricane Katrina. However, when our little man was 4 months old, we drove down to the coast of MS, and there we stayed for 3 years! God showed us a lot during that time… things we would not have learned where we were. He knows His plans for us and what He’s doing… and like you said, we just need to trust Him!
wow Jessica, that is quite adventurous especially with little children! You showed God right there how much your trust Him.
I think my previous comment was lost… but I was just thinking this morning about sheep and how dependent we are on someone to lead us and guide us. So dependent, that if we are not hearing the real Shepherd’s voice we will too easily follow the path of a false shepherd.
There is a church down in Florida that proclaims to be following the real Jesus, a Latin American man who has been in trouble with the law and is divorced, working on his 2nd marriage. Red flags like that don’t stop the sheep.
Thanks for helping us stay in tune with Jesus, Olga, making choices that keep us on the right path!
We are extremely dependent upon God; we are in desperate need to hear His voice; what would we do without it?
I always find it interesting that as followers of Christ, we’re called ‘sheep’ in the scriptures. Sheep are (among other things): Not the smartest animal on the farm, especially vulnerable to predators, most desperately needing leading. The sheep analogy makes a lot of sense to me. I know I need leading, feel vulnerable and when left to my own devices I’ll make some poor decisions!
Great post Olga.
Thanks Matthew for your comment. Sheep are indeed not the smartest animals, that’s why they need to be leaded and guided.
The better way is ALWAYS God’s way in my life, Olga. At least I have grown enough to be sure of that one thing! Thanks for this post!
I agree Mary, the better way is always God’s way!
So true. The shepherd knows where He is leading us and we don’t need to know where or try to break that ‘secret’ code before following.
I like the way you say that Claudia; we don’t need to break that secret code before we follow Him; that’s called trust!
Hey Olga…love this article… I sometimes am like a donkey.lol, but thank God for the chance to be His sheep. I love this sentence in your article..There comes the moment that you must put your trust in the Lord. I am in one of those moments right now in my life and I truely thank you for this article! Speaking directly to me!
We all are like donkeys from time to time Penny, but God is always ready to supply us with His mercy and grace to keep going and doing what is right!
This article gives me so much peace, Olga. Even though I feel like I am following my path more now than I ever have, I still have times when I wonder if it’s really what God called me to. Is this company and this direction really what He wanted? You see I moved too, in a sense. I wasn’t always a Christ-centered, music ministry-focused vocal coach.
I was just Ron Cross, Vocal coach. My site back then consistently ranked in the top five for searches for local vocal coaches. But then I started feeling this urdge-this calling, pushing me to change everything. Take the site down. Rebrand the company. Start over, basically. And as right as it feels, I still wonder sometimes, friend. I wasn’t making a killing before, but I was consistently making money being just Ron Cross, vocal coach.
Now I write, and blog, and post on the social networks, and do videos, and tutorials, and it all feels right. But the fruit isn’t manifesting yet. And I wonder. Your blog today just have me a peace about all that.
Thank you my friend.
Ron
Awesome to hear Ron where you are coming from. I believe with you that the fruit will come and that you will be amazed at what God is doing in your life!
Great post Olga. I am in a situation myself where i am following Gods direction without knowing why he’s leading me there; but has you said, i know he’s leading me to abundant blessings.
Good work, may God continue to bless and strengthen you. Amen