Psalm 23
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The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
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.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
In this season of life, I am walking through grief.
It comes in waves and it can be so frustrating when it hits. Grief is a funny thing though. In these times, I always feel more close to the Lord than I do in the day to day of the "Good Life". Where it makes me physically sick sometimes to think of my sweet seester being gone, I am also grateful for this time with Jesus. Being able to just sit with Him and listen for how He is speaking in this season.
At her funeral, Psalm 23 was read. A well known passage of scripture that kept popping up through different avenues after the fact. So I finally did more digging. I wanted The Lord to imprint on my heart what He wanted for my life in this season through His Word.
Slowing down and taking in this passage has already comforted me in more ways than one. Dusting off the "I already know that verse" and taking it in slowly. There is so much I could share already on what I have been taking in, but I am going to park it at the beginning.
"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul."
I think there are examples that the Lord gives us in The Bible that if we take it literal, it does us so much good. Now, I am not saying to go sacrifice a cow, but for me, literally going out in the country in the midst of this grief and laying down in a green pastures (well, greenish right now, let’s be real: it’s winter in North Texas) allowed for me to look up instead of down and around at my circumstances. He helped restore my soul in that moment. I know it’s not a one and done fix. That I will have to keep coming to Him and allowing Him to restore me over and over in whatever headspace I am in.
This month I want to encourage you - find the green pasture, find the still waters in the quiet. Allow Him to hang out with you and restore you going into this new year.
Happy New Year, Momma.
