APRIL 7, 2025 ~ FROM A PASTOR'S HEART

April 6 DEVOTIONAL BIBLE READING:  PSALM 23

Be still and know that He is God! This may be one of the hardest things we have to do as followers of Jesus. What does your day look like today? Mine has just started and I am wondering how I will accomplish all the things I have on my agenda. And right there I believe is the problem for most of us...it is "our" agenda...not God's agenda. There are many days I have so much to do "for God" that I have little time "with God.” It is very difficult in the midst of a lot of noise and activity to hear the Lord. It is certainly next to impossible to spend real time with Him. Jesus had times where He just had to get away from the activity. It wasn't that what He was doing was not important...but what was more important was spending time with His Father so that He could effectively do all the other things that needed to be done. If we desire to see the Lord's work and will done around us...we must slow down...quiet down...sit down...calm down, before the Lord, so that we know that He is God.

David said in Psalm twenty-three, "He makes me lie down in green pastures.” The Lord, our Shepherd, knows what we need. He not only leads us, but there are times He brings us to a place of rest. This rest is primarily in Him and with Him. It is when we are calm and resting in the Lord that we will hear Him clearly. It is in that place of rest that there is only one voice we are listening to, rather than a multitude which we cannot clearly distinguish from one another. He brings us to rest in a good place...those "green pastures" are in His presence, where there is no need. When everything else has been taken care of by our great Shepherd we are ready to listen...to hear...to understand...to receive...and to follow Him. Away from those green pastures we are likely to miss what our Shepherd has for us. We are likely to go off on our own and find ourselves in trouble. We are called by our Savior to be still....to rest in Him...to get before Him in those green pastures. It is there that we really get to know our God!

Please share your thoughts.