"The Green Of the Pasture"

 

         The replacement of lust for what we do not have by thanksgiving for what we do have is a primary pathway into living experience of God.

 

     "Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5).

 

     The writer of Hebrews confirms this truth by declaring that the basis of overcoming covetousness and experiencing contentment lies in the remembrance of our Lord's abiding presence.  "He is thy life" declared Moses in the Old Testament.  "To live is Christ" declares Paul in the New (Deuteronomy 30:20; Philippians 1:21).  "Such things as ye have" only have true value if they somehow serve to enhance experience of the Christ who alone is the true fulfillment of our hearts.  The things we don't have may well be withheld because our Heavenly Father knows the danger they would be to our gaze upon the Lord Jesus as the Life of our lives.

 

     The sheep are prone to look upon the grass of other hills as greener.  The Shepherd knows this to be an optical illusion, and He knows also that savage wolves hide in the nooks and crannies of other pastures.  Thus He calls us to enjoy the grass He has chosen in the fields He lovingly plowed, planted, cultivated and protects just for us.  If we have trusted in the Lord Jesus and submitted ourselves to His glory and will, the fulfillment of our hearts is as near as the prayer which replaces lust with gratitude.  This includes things, people, circumstances, conditions, callings, careers, and the realities of this present hour in our lives.  The Lord Jesus is not the "I Will Be" of tomorrow.  He is the "I Am" of today (John 8:58).  He is the green of the pasture in which He has placed us, and we may feed in this moment as contentment for "such things as ye have" is found in such a Savior as we have.

 

"I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ."

(Philippians 3:8)