Protection, provision, + a life of promise

I think it helps when we can visualize something and try to give some infrastructure to our thoughts and concepts that swirl in our minds.
Sometimes, I think anxiety is just the lack of margin to step back and sort through the pragmatics with the Spirit.

Anyway, as I’ve been preparing to preach on Sunday about Psalm 23 and this picture of the Good Shepherd, I looked out my own window and the land that stretches beyond it. Wheat blowing in the fields and I thought of us—you and me—and the lives that we live every day.
This picture—the Good Shepherd and His provision over the sheep of His pasture.
You see, the Shepherd never steps aside and takes a break. He doesn’t pay partial attention to the sheep that listen more; rather, it is those who have strayed who capture His attention.
His devotion is sure despite the sheep’s ability to recognize or honor it.
His boundary lines aren’t influenced by the sheep’s shortsightedness or fear of missing out; He has already given them green pastures + good ground.

The Shepherd will always be the Good Shepherd.
But it is the sheep’s awareness of His presence that provides their perspective, peace, and posture.
When you expect someone to provide, the particulars feel less harsh, confusing, or unsure; because you know their proximity, the things that threaten you no longer grip you.
Because The Shepherd is here…tending, touching hearts, tenderizing souls, toiling the hard places, taking every sheep into His arms as though they were the only one: “You are mine. Nothing can snatch you out of My hand.”

He is near.
Doesn’t that change everything?
In every valley, amidst every uncertainty, throughout every season, He is leading you to safe spaces + breathing life into your soul as you go. You don’t have to fear what may come—that is the Gatekeeper’s job. Protection, provision, + a life of promise—THAT is His gift to you. Receive it.