"He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake." Psalm 23:3
This week has been nothing short of a refining week so far. And it's only Wednesday. I have dealt with 2 intense rejections this week. Neither that I will elaborate on. Both were situations that I genuinely believed that the Lord had brought me to. Yet both situations brought great pain and hurt and questions without answers (at least as clearly as I wanted them). Before dealing with the first situation I was spending a lot of time in prayer and asking the Lord for strength and boldness in what I knew I had to do. In the midst of that, I ended up in Psalm 23 where verse 3 brought about a whole new meaning to what was about to take place in my life and a question that I had to answer: Am I willing to sacrifice things in my life for HIS glory above my own happiness? This sacrifice, I learned, is a lot deeper than what we easily say yes to sacrifice. This sacrifice is giving up things that had grown to mean so much to me. It was trusting what I KNOW to be true of the Lord over what I FELT to be true. Although in the middle of what I believed to be what God had called me to I felt so much pain, I had to choose to KNOW that my God was and is good and he does good things. And in the midst of the rejection just sure as my God was there to begin the healing and comfort and with the promise that he was leading me down this path of righteousness, the enemy was there too, ready with lies. Lies about what this meant. Lies that he has used from the very beginning with Eve: that somehow God is withholding his best for me and asking did God REALLY tell you to do this. But praise the Lord, by His grace and truth that is rooted in my heart, the battle quickly began with the knowledge and truth of His word.
God has been so gracious to me and with me. To show me things about myself and as humans in general. To speak firm truth, yet remind me of his unfailing and unchanging love. To remind me that it is ok to hurt, but that he came to heal and he did not bring me down this path of righteousness to wallow in my hurt and rejection, but to be my best for His glory. To quote Oswald Chambers,
"God always ignores the present perfection for the ultimate perfection. He is not concerned about making you blessed and happy just now; He is working out His ultimate perfection ALL the time -- that they may be one even as We are."One of the reasons I think that I love Psalm 23 so much is the analogy of a sheep and a shepherd and how with any bit of research you will quickly learn that sheep are some of, if not THE, dumbest animals on the planet. If left to their own, their lives quickly turn to ruin. So even though there are decisions in my life that I have made that seem good, I am a sheep making decisions with limited view. But I have a shepherd who sees all and knows all and wants to guide me towards my best. In paths of righteousness FOR HIS NAME'S SAKE. Not for my names sake, but for his fame and his glory. So my prayer is that my faith in the character of God and who I KNOW he is will continue to lead me in path's of righteousness. No matter what the cost to me.
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