I want to be healthy and think I look good so I exercise, eat things I don’t like, avoid food I love, take my daily fish oil, floss, use hair conditioner, do push-ups, and put on sun screen.   Despite my best efforts my skin is getting a speckled, stretched rubber band look, my muscles are going the wrong direction, my hair is gray, and instead of six pack abs mine look more like a six pack of Pillsbury biscuits.   As time passes however, I find I am less concerned for my “outside” looks and much more concerned with my “inside”.   Is your spirit and soul looking and longing for something?   Psalm 23 was written by King David in the context of his intimate and abiding relationship with the Father.  It is sharing the incredible wonder of our Father’s care for us and the transformation of our “inside” in this relationship.  Listen to a man known for his closeness to God’s heart, paraphrased slightly. 

"I lack nothing when God is given complete control and oversight of my life.  He provides for me such that I do not wonder or worry for my day to day needs.   His provision is so complete that I am at peace with who I am.  Not only does He provide for me but He watches and guides me on my journey sending me along ways that are best for me all the while showing His power and splendor in my life.   He is with me and fights for me against Satan himself and I can rest assured that He is there.  No matter what Satan may hurl at me is no match for my Lord’s strength and guaranteed victory through Christ.  Understanding and experiencing this peace and protection gives me great comfort even in the middle of the worst storm.   And best of all and most difficult to believe, as I abide in this relationship with my Father He comes to me. He provides a spiritual feast where the Lord Himself through His Holy Spirit is feeding me daily with delicacies of wisdom and peace hard to imagine.  Not just once but my entire life He pursues me with goodness, mercy, and love in wave after wave.   How incredible that our Father would do that when I should be on my face before Him begging for mercy and forgiveness.  The Maker of Heaven and Earth is serving me!  I can’t fathom it.  Yet it is true and with this realization everything changes.  I never want to leave His presence.   He is real.  God is with me.  God is for me.  I am not alone."

Can you trust enough to accept something so amazing and incredible?  It is a transforming discovery and passage of our faith that this is real.  This is not theory, make believe, too good to be true, or “I hope it’s true” living.   Whether you are at the peak of joy and happiness or in the depths of suffering grasping this secret moves you to a new dimension of life and relationship with God.  It is the abundant life.  I lack nothing and I fear nothing when I dwell with Him.  My heart, the most vulnerable, protected, guarded part of my being trusts in the only true God and He will not disappoint or fail me.  I depend on You Lord completely, without reservation or doubt.  As long as I am with You I do not care where I go. 

The greatest challenge for you and me is our complete acceptance of the reality of God and His salvation of us.  It is there offered fully and freely.  We must believe it and accept it to receive the reward, but this kind of belief is so hard for us.  Jesus knew the great battle waged for our hearts and said “the gate is small and the road is narrow that leads to true life. Only a few people find that road.”(Matthew 7)   He also said “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with you, and you will eat with me. Those who win the victory will sit with me on my throne in the same way that I won the victory and sat down with my Father on his throne.” (Revelation 3).  

Open the door and take the narrow, unmarked path to a life you cannot fathom.   

Psalm 23(NIV) A psalm of David.

 ¹ The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

 ² He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

 ³ he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths

   for his name’s sake.

⁴ Even though I walk

   through the darkest valley
I will fear no evil,
   for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
   they comfort me.

 ⁵ You prepare a table before me
   in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
   my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely your goodness and love will follow me
   all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
   forever.

Amen

Scotty Elston
Shallowater, Texas