“The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.” Psalm 23:1-3………………
One morning the Spirit of God for the umpteenth time told me to slow down. This was not new. He had told me on and off for years. But it was a reminder. I was walking with one of the ministry’s dogs, spending time with Him as I walked, praying, singing to Him, praising Him, listening for His voice. I was walking quite fast in the brisk near winter morning. I figured maybe He also wanted me to slow down my walk as I circled the hotel where I was staying. But He made it clear when I sought Him He wasn’t concerned with how fast I was physically walking in my morning exercise. He was concerned with, and addressing, my daily walk with Him, my loving and serving Him, my loving and serving others.
The Good Shepherd doesn’t lead His sheep in a rush, in a hurry, in an endless flurry of activity, with a jam packed calendar book, with an extraordinarily and impossible-to-complete daily to-do list, expecting His sheep to race through their lives, mowing down everything and everyone to get everything done, shoving Him to the wayside, neglecting Him and time with Him, or squeezing Him into our calendars, or compartmentalizing Him whereby we give Him little slots in our appointment books, being on an endless mad dash to complete everything, to zip through one-year plans, business plans, tasks and chores and such. That’s not how the Lord operates. That’s not how He leads His sheep. But that’s how lots of us sheep think we’re supposed to live our lives, and how we do live our lives. Some of us are caught up with our culture and the world’s way of busy, busy, busy, of fast, fast, fast, of hurry up and get everything done, instead of being caught up with Christ, with God almighty, with His Word, with our Good Shepherd for those who follow Jesus, with His Holy Spirit leading us according to His will, at His pace, for His glory.
How busy is too busy, how not busy is not busy enough, how fast is too fast, how slow is too slow, when do we need to do more, or do less, or speed up, or slow down, or empty our calendars, or fill them more, and most importantly, when do we spend time with the Lord, sitting at His feet, reading His Word, seeking Him, praying, listening, worshiping Him, how do we know how to fill each day of our lives, when do we need to make changes, and do we need to make changes right now, perhaps to slow down, perhaps something else, how are we supposed to know?
For those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord, who genuinely follow Him, the more time we spend in God’s fellowship, the more we walk in His company, the more we yield our hearts and lives to Him and His Word, the more we make Him the absolute number one priority in our lives, the more we exalt Him, the more we look to Him in everything, the more we humble ourselves before Him, the more we don’t restrict Him to Sundays or to any hour or day at all, the more we glorify Him as Lord of our entire lives, of absolutely everything, the more we spend one on one time with Him, the more we learn to live by His Word, the more we forsake the world’s ways and take on His instead, the more we stare at Him, and behold Him, and return our gaze to Him when we look away, or turn in the wrong direction, and do the wrong thing, and repent and return our focus to Him, the more we live each day to love and revere Him, to honor and adore Him, the more we commune with Him, the more we listen for His voice, the more we are filled with His Spirit, and with His Word, the more we live and breathe for Christ rather than for ourselves and for this world, the more we are able to hear His Spirit, to hear His voice, and to devotedly lovingly longingly follow Him, the more in touch and in tune and in step we are with God almighty, our Good Shepherd who will show us moment by moment His will, and His pace, that we might walk in His company, going the speed He sets for us, that we might learn and live to bring glory to His beloved most precious magnificent eternal name!