By Pastor Gilbert Burgess
Take a moment to reflect on your life. Your trials, your setbacks, your good days, your bad days, the heroic victories, even over the demonic attacks on your very soul.
In your reflection, can you see where the Lord has intervened on your behalf? When you take a retrospective look and pinpoint the times that you said “if it had not been for the Lord keeping me, I don’t know where I would be.” Or where would life have taken me if it had not been for the Lord?
Perhaps we haven’t always reverenced Him as we should; in awe and admiration of His greatness. Psalm 34:9 encourages us to “fear the Lord, you His saints, For those who fear Him lack nothing.” But because of His great grace and mercies, He allows to flow to the just and the unjust. God brought you through your difficult times too.
God’s grace and mercy we’ve come to understand our unmerited favors towards us all. King David writes in Psalm 23:1, “The Lord is my Shepherd [to feed, to guide and to shield me], I shall not want.” King David reflects of his life, the hardships, the trials, the times he spent hiding from King Saul; he remembers how the Lord brought him through difficult and challenging times.
In Psalm 23 King David gives us this image of the good Shepherd as he watches over and takes care of his sheep. This image helps us better understand God’s love and compassion toward us, especially in times of difficulty. God takes care of those who, like sheep, trust in their shepherd. King David reminds us with this testimonial that whatever trial, struggle, or difficulty you’re going through now or may encounter in the future, remember that the Lord is willing and able to walk with you. Our role is to trust in Him, and give your life to Him. The Lord doesn’t save you and let you fend for yourself. He doesn’t fill you with His Holy Spirit and drop you off in the middle of nowhere in distress. The Bible says, “He’ll never leave you nor forsake you.” Even when you don’t feel Him, remember that Jesus said in Matthew 28:20 you can be sure that I will be with you always. I will continue with you until the end of time, and this promise is available to all who will put their trust in Him.
God loves us despite our shortcomings. And His grace and mercies are still available for us all.
And like King David in the text, he wasn’t on the run, he wasn’t in a pit, he wasn’t in a foxhole, he wasn’t stressing,” he was at a point in life, where the Lord had given him a rest on every side, he was at a place of quietness. But even in his times of duress, David knew he could trust in God, and his testimony has been a source of strength for many, so let me encourage you on today, you too can be a David by sharing your testimony of what the Lord has done for you, you never know whose life you may touch in a mighty way.
Ps. Remember the Lord is always there for you, God Bless.
Pastor Gilbert Burgess of Community Baptist Church 174 Cherry St., New Canaan, CT
