I shall not want...

Earlier this year  I had been struggling with my relationship with God.  It all has to do with wants and needs.  These wants are not necessarily ones that line up with a Christian lifestyle.

As I struggled with them I found myself falling deeper into a pit that I didn't like.  It was also separating me from God.  To me there isn't anything much worse than knowing the Kingdom of God, it's benefits and the promise, then give in to the worlds temptations and realizing the kingdom of God is really out of reach.  It can make for one angry and confused person.

During brief moments of sanity I would cry out to God begging for His grace and mercy and feeling like I was hitting a brick wall.  I wasn't but this was how I felt.  Why would I feel like that?  1. Because there was so much in turmoil in my life that I could not hear God reaching back.  2. I was unwilling to let go of those ungodly wants that appeared to be taking over my life.  As I write this post I still feel the tentacles of that sinfulness reaching out to me wanting to drag me back into its den of iniquity.

What made the difference today of all days?  It was a passage in the Bible that I memorized a long time ago that entered my mind as I was driving.  It is from the 23 Psalm.  The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want.

It hit me that it was my wants that were dragging me down.

I remember the Clint Eastwood movie Pale Rider where a young girl was praying Psalm 23.  She said, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want...  But I do want."

As humans we do have wants and needs.  Sometimes those wants and needs drag us away from the Kingdom of God.

Gill's Exposition of the Bible says "I shall not want," would be more accurately written "I shall not fail."  To quote Gill a little more, "I shall not fail or come short that is, of eternal glory and happiness; for Christ's sheep are in his hands, out of which none can pluck them, and therefore shall not perish, but have everlasting life, John 10:27.

If the Lord is our Shepherd then indeed we will not fail.   Our wants?  As we grow in Christ and our lives become Christ centered truly the Lord is out Shepherd and those wants that want to snare us lose their appeal to us and thereby keeping us safe in the Shepherd's arms.