Perhaps you, like me, have found comfort in keeping a record of wrongs of your surroundings. Instead of resting, we’re fretting. I’ve been swift to find fault with a circumstance and resort to envy or strife in viewing my personal situation. Preoccupied with “what ifs” and “if onlys,” we wonder if we’re in the right place at the right time, or maybe we’re hopelessly lost and in the wrong lane at peak rush hour.
However, I’m one of God’s little sheep, so therefore, I’m in a pasture, and according to Psalm 23, it’s a green one. Frets give way to true rest, because my husband and I have sought to acknowledge God in all our ways, and He directed our path to the season we’re in. I pause to look around in light of this, and pull together my courage.
“Remember this, had any other condition been better for you than the one in which you are divine love would have put you there.” (Charles Spurgeon)
The “conditions” He provides can often feel more like we accidentally blew south at a splintered crossroads. But our condition, truly, is a pasture with a provision of quiet water. Divine Love would have orchestrated us somewhere else if that had been His design for our good and His glory. There’s a sovereign reason the pasture that promised more potential was marked “pending” before we could even make a move to transfer.
He put me HERE, because He loves me, so I shall not want.
Sometimes we must squint in faith until we realize we absolutely have everything He says we need. Our part is to listen, follow, and obey in the process of our growth. One step at a time.
But what about them? Wandering eyes gather uncertainty. Our literal neighbor, or someone online, may look like they are feasting on a lusher hilltop without any goat-heads or gaping dry cracks. Maybe they have more sheeply companions, more resources, more giftings, more health, more rainbows. THEIR earthly blessings can look as deep green as the envy in our hearts.
I’d love to have eavesdropped on this conversation in John 21 after Jesus gave specific instructions to Peter — “When Peter saw him (John), he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”
Do we need to know the business of our sister or brother? “You follow me!” So even still, as for me, I shall not want. My cup overflows.
Because didn’t He say we have angels encamping around us? Don’t I have the Living water? Do I not possess every spiritual blessing either already or not yet? Do I not share Jesus Christ’s own inheritance? Do I have always-access to the Throne of Grace? Does He restore my soul each time I beg for mercy? Do I have the weapons of the gospel needed for battle? Do I have endless rest and quietness when I entrust myself to His care? Do I have a great glory through His salvation alone? Is not the Lord our Shepherd?
We asked our very spiritual life of Him, and He granted. Even in the valley of the shadow of death, we can expect His great benefits of salvation. He makes us lie down and comforts us with His staff. He leads even when we travel before our enemies. March on, little sheep. The cup from the Shepherd overflows.
When asked of our five-year plan, it’s safe to assume we visualize multiplied blessings…with additional sugar on top. We hope for an even greener, more massive pasture, and we chart a path that makes sense to throw us in the forecast of those blessings. Oh, how we love sensible, logical, consequential outcomes.
But we know He’ll keep leading, with or without what makes sense to us. Even when the weather He chooses doesn’t feel pragmatic or lush, or is a pasture clearly planted in the middle of a raging battle, He still promises His lovingkindness and asks for our trust and obedience. Trust He’s providing the unseen spiritual blessings we need. Evil is not to fear when the Shepherd holds both a rod and staff.
“This hard place in which you, perhaps, find yourself, is the very place in which God is giving you opportunity to look only to Him.” Elisabeth Elliot
To look to Him, is to see Him hemming us in with goodness and lovingkindness, and that takes some faith. If we can’t see His goodness following us, perhaps we’re expecting only earthside gifts found in a five-year plan, and not the gifts that yield only eternal fruit. And not the eternal weight of glory growing in the absence or sacrifice of those common gifts of grace.
We can wail, “how did I get here?” or “WHY did I get here?” but instead, enjoy, delight and rejoice in where He’s brought us, because He held us in our journey through and to the pasture. Believe it’s green. Wherever you are, fully dwell and inhale His goodness. Go to the quiet waters and drink a fill of abundance of the river of God’s delights. Obey courageously!
“Give us ears
To hear that still, small voice
And give us lips
Forever willing to rejoice
And may our eyes be lit with wisdom
May we know the path that’s true
And we’ll march
With hearts courageous after You
We’re marchin’ on
With hearts courageous
We’ll follow anywhere
You want us to
And should You lead us
Where the battle rages
Let us march
With hearts courageous after You.”
–Hearts Courageous, Jamie Owens-Collins
Abigail Rehmert 