Good morning!
Welcome to your morning coffee! May our Heavenly Father gently give us fresh eyes for his word, his will, and his ways. Father, call us close to your side today. Birth in us a longing for your presence in prayer and in your word to us. Inspire us to answer your call and seek you today. In the name of Jesus and by the power of the Spirit, help us to seek our will today Father, and as we know afresh and anew, help us do!
Your Morning Song: "Come What May" by We Are Messengers
Your Morning Scripture: Psalm 23:1-3
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.
Have you heard the saying, "familiarity breeds contempt"? This saying could be easily misinterpreted as meaning "familiarity breeds conscious dislike/disinterest." But that's not quite it.
The more familiar we become with a person or thing, the more likely we are take them for granted, not intentionally disliking or rejecting, but more subconsciously spending less time thinking carefully about the person or thing.
A tame example of this would be something called "highway hypnosis." When you're driving in an overly familiar area, or if the road and landscape have looked familiar for long enough, your mind will stop consciously driving and you will enter into something very much like auto-pilot. If you've ever realized that you don't remember a large chunk of the time you spent driving, that's what that is. Familiarity led to a lack of conscious focus.
A less tame example of this is how we often read verses that have become very familiar to us over the years. If we are not careful, we will become hypnotized by our familiarity with God's word, and we will read right through it and take nothing with us.
Psalm 23 is perhaps one of the best examples of this. How easily our eyes and minds slide right through these verses, missing God's intended message. And the evidence is proved in his intended message not being lived out in our every day lives.
As I am so often tempted to mention, look at the pronouns. Here in these verses, just as in John 3:16, the pronouns tell the true story we so easily overlook. He, He, He... Who is the shepherd and who is the sheep between God and I? He is the shepherd. He is the one who leaves me without wants. He is the one who brings me rest. He is the one who refreshes me, restores me, and who leads me. And all this not for the sake of my own self-determined worth, but for his name's sake. It is "He," God, and not we, who acts. God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
Do we live out of an understanding and acceptance of God's tender, loving, guiding, leading control over our lives? Or do we mistake ourselves for the Shepherd? Sometimes I do...
All the way
from our every day to day,
even unto salvation,
and beyond,
forever into eternity.
It is not we,
but he.
God give us fresh eyes for your living word!
