Praise God our Good Shepherd is equipped to keep us safe from the outer, corrupt influences, as well as our own inner selfishness.
Today, let’s bring all the verses we’ve memorized so far together:
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Ps 23:1-4 ESV
As we continue to follow our Good Shepherd, He will continue to patiently lead us down the path of righteousness as He protects and guides us with His Word. When life gets difficult, because it will, it should comfort us that we can turn to the Bible and continue to fight the good fight of Faith. Sticking to our Good Shepherd, no matter where anyone else may stray, we can not only love Him with all we’ve got, but then we can speak truth in love and grace to those around us too. We can be a blessing even as we are being blessed.
It is only with the constant attention of our Good Shepherd that we can have what we need to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. As we allow the Holy Spirit to correct us, as we imitate the life of Jesus, as we choose to gratefully obey the Father, life really does get more and more abundant. And on those occasions when we sharply sense the shadow of death as we are walking through the valley, let’s choose to keep on walking, trusting our Good Shepherd will get us through, AND we will be better off on the other side of the challenge, than if we never walked that path before.
Join me in memorizing 52 verses this year:
January: 1- Jn 3:16; 2- 2Co 5:17; 3- Jas 2:26; 4- Eph 2:10
February: 5- Jn 10:10; 6- Ro 6:23; 7- Rev 21:4; 8- Php 4:13
March: 9- 1Pe 5:7; 10- Jn 8:32; 11- Dt 30:19; 12- Jn 3:30; 13- 2Chron 20:3
April: 14- 2Chron 20:12; 15- 2Chron 20:15b; 16- 2Chron 20:17
May: 17- Ro 8:28; 18- 1Co 13:13; 19- Php 2:12; 20- Mt 5:4
June: 21- Lk 23:42; 22- Jas 4:7; 23- Pr 22:6; 24- Mt 5:3; 25- Jn 14:6
July: 26- Jas 2:19; 27- Dt 31:8; 28- Jn 14:15; 29- Jn 8:11
August: 30- Ro 8:1; 31- Pr 4:23; 32- Pr 18:21; 33- Ps 118:24; 34- 1Jn 4:4
35- Mt 16:24
36- Isa 53:6
37- Ps 23:1-4
<>< Peace, Diane
