Monday, August 7, 2017

"Ponds and Pastures"


"Ponds and Pastures"       
   
    "Know ye that the Lord, He is God.  It is He that hath made us and not we ourselves.  We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture" (Psalm 100:3).
    "I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the Possessor of heaven and earth" (Genesis 14:22).

    Let us breathe the sweet sigh of relief in this day that we belong not to ourselves, but rather to our God, our Shepherd, and the Possessor of heaven and earth.

     The world, the devil, and the flesh would have us believe that we belong to ourselves and must act with the requisite concern, trepidation, and fear that comes with ownership.  Truth and reality, however, beckon us to the peace of realizing we didn't make ourselves, nor can we possess ourselves in any manner that leads to a life truly lived.  Imagine a flock of sheep being led by one of its own, or a lamb seeking to find still waters and green pastures by its own devices.  Such ones quickly become mutton for wolves rather than safe and secure supplicants who look to Another as their Proprietor of peace and provision.  Our spiritual enemies indeed feast upon us if we wander from the flock by forgetting the blessed truth that "ye are not your own" (I Corinthians 6:19).

   The Maker, the Owner, the Father, and the Guide to ponds and pastures - this is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The Possessor owns all, whether we know it or not.  We must know in order to live in Truth and reality.  We must also make many specific choices to remember and affirm our Lord's supremacy and supply.  Our enemies tempt us to consider ourselves as shepherds of our own being rather than as sheep of the One in whom "we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).  We will not and cannot find the still waters and green pastures of our hearts unless we relinquish the false notion that we own ourselves.  Peace, the Shepherd's peace, flows in as we forcibly eject the darkness of deception regarding this most vital matter of Truth.  Let us breathe the sweet sigh of relief as we acknowledge our Possessor, and His perfect ability to lead us throughout this day to the ponds and pastures we cannot find for ourselves.

"But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd."
(Matthew 9:36)
"Ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."
(I Peter 2:25)

Weekly Memory Verse 
    Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
(John 14:27)
   

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