Sunday, February 1, 2009


The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.

Psalm 23:1

The Living Bible translates this verse: "Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need!" I like that, for it has a ring of reality and victory that should characterize the Christian's attitude toward his circumstances. We may not have everything we "want," but our Shepherd certainly sees to it that we have everything we "need!" sometimes we need the discipline of difficulty which Paul talked about and called his "thorn in the flesh." Driven beyond our own resources, we learn what it really means to fall back upon the inexhaustible riches of our great Savior.

My thoughts:

Remembering back to the time when I gave my life to the Lord and had to learn the lesson of "needs vs. wants." It was 1984 and with one simple decision my entire world was sent spinning out of control. I remember thinking what it must have been like to be Abraham when God called him to leave his comfortable home and everything that was familiar to journey into a land he did not know.

Those were financially lean years where I made only enough money to pay the bills and not a penny more. There were times when I didn't have the money to buy groceries and yet when I would show up for work I would find that one of my clients had left me a care package filled with food or a Honey Baked Ham and my favorite slab of cheese...simple happy pleasures!

I think that in this day and age with so much technology available and peoples doors opened wide it's easy to fall back into the trap of wanting my wants instead of my needs. But when it comes right down to it the only thing I "need" is to keep my eyes steadfastly fixed on Jesus and He will take care of the rest.

3 comments:

Seawashed said...

yes indeed. He is all I need. He takes care of me better than anyone can, even myself.

I too gave my life to Christ in 1984, my Senior year of H.S, I was 17yrs. old.

ellen b. said...

Amen... I gotta keep my eyes there "seeing I have the best in Jesus"...
Have a wonderful week and happy February to you :0)

ellen b. said...

Well we were antiquing this afternoon too but we didn't find anything we couldn't pass up. There were these great etched dishes that I kept looking at...
I'm looking forward to seeing your "find"!