Journey with the Lord as my Shepherd

I love to travel. I love going to different places and staying at hotels and eating at different restaurants and meeting different people. I love to be at airports and see all the different people hustling to get to their next destination. I love an adventure. I love a journey.

I know that I probably like these things because I don’t have to travel for work, and if I did than I wouldn’t want to travel anymore. I love to be at home too.

I love the journey, not just the destination. What about you? Do you enjoy the journey or do you just want to get to the destination?

I have been on a journey this week, but not a physical journey. I have been on a spiritual journey, and it has been so amazing for my walk with the Lord. I just wanted to share with whoever wants to read this.

In Sunday school, we began a study on prayer. Prayer has been something I have been trying to focus on in my walk with the Lord. I am actually reading a book right now called Draw the Circle. It is about praying circles around the things you are praying for. It is taken from the idea of the Israelites walking around the wall of Jericho for seven days before God brought the walls down. Imagine the Israelites walking around a wall with their enemies towering above them. That would produce some major fear in anyone’s heart, but the Israelites followed God’s direction and did just as He commanded. Imagine how much prayer was going in the hearts and minds of these people as they walked.

Our Sunday school teacher challenged us to pray through Psalm 23 throughout the week. I was so excited to follow his direction. I have Psalm 23 memorized so it was easy for me to review and pray through this Psalm when I was driving or folding laundry or making dinner. But I also spent time on my knees with my Bible open to Psalm 23.

The things I began to see in this passage that I have missed in the past, and the beauty of using Psalm 23 as a guide to my prayers was transformational. This journey I have been on this past week has transformed my prayers.

As I considered each of the verses and used them to guide my prayers, I realized how I was praying God’s will for my life and for those that I was praying for. Don’t you sometimes wonder when you are praying if you are praying God’s will? I do. When I pray God’s word, though, I am praying His will back to him.

Psalm 23:1 “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”

So often when I have thought about this verse, I thought about “wanting” as my “needs.” I have needs and since God is my Shepherd He will provide for my needs. How many times have you prayed for God to supply your needs, but what you thought was a need was not a need but a desire for things to go the way you wanted them to go?

I have written in the past about idols of our hearts. An idol of our heart is anything that we want that we do not have, and many times we are willing to sin to get that want satisfied.

If I am looking to the Lord to be my Shepherd, if I am worshipping Him for who He is, I won’t be wanting. If the Lord as my Shepherd is sufficient enough to meet my needs and I am worshipping Him as the Lord of my life, than I will not be wanting. If I am always looking to God to meet my needs, then I won’t be wanting.

If I am looking to anything other than God to meet my needs, than I will be wanting.

As I have prayed this verse for myself and others, I have realized how selfishly I pray for myself and quite honestly for others.

Psalm 23:3 “…He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”

The goal of our lives is to honor God in all we do. All we do needs to be for His name’s sake, not for our name’s sake. If the Lord is truly our Shepherd and we allow Him to lead us in paths of righteousness, not only will we not want we will also be living our lives for His name’s sake, not ours.

We will be living life for His glory. This may seem like we won’t get our needs met, but the contrary is true. I have found that the more I seek after my Shepherd and trust in His plan, not only will my needs be met but I will have an abundance that will be overflowing into the lives of others.

I want to challenge to get on your knees and open your Bible to Psalm 23 and begin to pray it through for yourself and all those on your prayer list. Then watch what God will do. You never know where this journey will take you.