Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
It was about 1:00 AM on the flight to Paraguay when I had a Psalm 23 experience. I felt the Lord come to me as my Shepherd and sit down on the empty seat next to me. The strange thing about it was that He did not say a word. He just sat there quietly as if He was just being with me. Without forethought I began to share some things from deep within my heart; things I did not know were in me until I expressed them to Him. I sensed He was beginning to restore my soul as the Psalm says He would.
A few days later we went to a retreat center that is in the boonies of Paraguay. It is a beautiful place with an orphanage on the property. I was very moved in my heart when we first arrived because I had been at that same place two years ago just after Matt Stewart was murdered. After I got settled in I needed some alone time so I took a walk on the property as the sun set behind the foothills around us.
All the emotions and feelings I had two years ago began rising in my heart. It was then that I realized my heart had gotten a little calloused from all the trying times we have experienced over the last couple of years. In our lives there are times when our hearts are overworked and start to get hard, not from sin, but from work (Mark 6:52). It is like a callous that forms on our hands. Grief, pain, disappointments and such will harden our hearts if we just stuff it down and not deal with it. I had been so busy standing strong and caring for those around me that I had not taken the time to take care of the grief in my own heart.
And then I heard this song:
All who are thirsty, All who are weak, Come to the fountain, Dip your heart in the stream of life, Let the pain and the sorrow, Be washed away, In the waves of his mercy, As deep cries out to deep (we sing), Come Lord Jesus come, Holy Spirit come, As deep cries out to deep.
I went to that stream that David called “still waters” in his Psalm and I dipped my heart in it. All the grief I was carrying deep in my heart, all the pain, all the sorrow was being washed away in His fountain of lifeblood. It was like the Lord was singing me into wholeness.
God has given us men and women who are endowed with the gift of shepherding His people, but from time to time we need a visit from the Chief Shepherd. We all need to be like David and confidently say, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” And “He restores my soul.” The Hebrew word for restores is rich in meaning. It means to bring back; to bring home again; to build again; to recover; to refresh; to relieve; to rescue.
Folks, if you are carrying grief, pain, disappointment or any such thing in your heart drop what you are doing right now and go to the Shepherd. He will lead you to His stream of life, the Lord Jesus Himself and relieve, rescue, refresh and build you back up.
Many Blessings, BW