The Good Shepherd restores my soul. I hope you are aware that as a human being there are three parts to you, your body, your spirit and your soul. And these three parts all have a mind of their own. Today let’s talk about the soul. The soul gets weighed down by quite a number of things. Guilt, regret, unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, conflict, unresolved conflict, rejection and grief. I think most of us walk around thinking we are fine or at the least not conscious of what could be weighing us down. We could be clueless of the impact these things might have on us. And we tend to get busy addressing the symptoms rather than the problem.
Who is the good Shepherd? Christ identifies Himself as the good shepherd in John 10:11. And Jesus says He lays down His life for the sheep. Jesus laying down His life for the sheep was no simple matter. Jesus bore our sins in His body and through His blood and sacrifice all sinners were redeemed. So that now when we believe in Him we receive not only eternal life but we have victory over sin and death. One of my favourite verses is 1 John 4:4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
Psalms 23:3 He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul. Quiet waters in the bible represent rest, calm, peace, contentment, no worries and no hassles. Rest is important to God. In Genesis 2:2b God set a whole day for rest. He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Rest is taking a pause, stopping an activity. When we are at rest we can reflect, we can appreciate what we have, what we have achieved. It allows our souls to feel and experience contentment, it is hard to feel stressed when one is at rest.
My challenge to you this week is practice being at rest. Refuse to give in to a knee jerk reaction of worrying about whatever comes you way. Peace is not the absence of trouble but rather the assurance that Jesus has provided a way out.