By Not Known
Psalm 23.2-3: 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.
There is a difference between a cowboy and a shepherd. How do cowboys move their cattle? They drive them along, they shout, they slap the cows and fire their guns in the air. They make a great deal of noise just to get the cattle moving. However the shepherd does not drive, he leads. We see it in Psalm 23 as well as John’s Gospel chapter 10:4-5 “When he has brought out his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact they will run away from him because they do not recognise a stranger’s voice.
It is a great encouragement to know that God our Shepherd goes before us so that whatever circumstances we face in life, we can say with confidence, “The Lord was here before us.”
I remember when my wife and I were newly married, we had to leave almost immediately for Manchester, England for my studies. We were facing a completely new future. We had never been so far from home before, never been to Britain, never been in a plane and of course we had never been married before! You can imagine our apprehension, mixed as it was with excitement, as we landed at Heathrow Airport in London. We found great encouragement from the truth that the Lord had gone before us so that everywhere we went, however new the place might be to us, it was never new to Him. He was there even before we arrived at the scene.
This is a wonderful truth for all who travel abroad whether to work or study. It is also true for those who face changes in their lives, who have to move to new locations, new positions, new offices, new jobs, a new phase of life etc. The Lord is there before us. Is it not an assuring thought that God the Shepherd leads? He does not drive us from behind, He goes ahead of us and leads us.
Excerpt from “Quiet Waters and Dark Valleys” by David WF Wong