The Lord is my shepherd....

Hello dear porchers! Beloved Hubby and I are blessed to have two wonderfully strong God seeking young women in our immediate family. There's Jessica Ann, (AKA Grant's mommy) our firstborn, and Carey, (AKA Emerson's mommy) brought to the family by our number one son. This evening I'm honored to have Carey here as a guest blogger. I hope you enjoy her thoughts. We do! Hugs, Shellie

The Lord is my shepherd...

I shall not want.

The beginning of the 23rd Psalm, one of my favorites as a child, and the first scripture I ever memorized. How could it be that I've known that scripture for almost 15 years and never really thought about what it means? Honestly, almost everyone knows this passage. I've read it myself and heard it read countless times, and not until the last couple of days have I stopped and pondered on it....

I just finished reading a series of books by Francine Rivers (a wonderful author by the way) called The Mark of the Lion. There is scripture all throughout and that line "the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want" for some reason caught my attention. The series is set in ancient Rome and trust me many people lived in want during that time. It is absolutely atrocious how little life was valued. But those early Christians clung to the knowledge that God was the Good Shepherd and in Him they would not want for anything. As I read and pictured these people living in dire situations, persecuted even till death for their faith; I thought of how blessed I am. Seriously, if I want to go on the street corner and yell to the top of my lungs that Jesus is Lord, I might get some funny looks, people might talk about me, they may even ostracize me; but no one would feed me to a pack of lions or wild dogs for entertainment.

Do we ever really stop and think about how much we have and yet we still want for more?

I find myself walking through a store, any store, even Wal-Mart picking something up, wanting it and then saying, "No I don't have enough money, or I don't really need it, but man, I want it!" Even as a Christian, I still want what this world has to offer...why? I believe it's because I constantly feed on the world, I constantly look to them for what I'm supposed to say, what I'm supposed to look like, heck even what I'm supposed to cook for supper. I live in want, simply because I go to the wrong source for my sustenance.

Jesus said come and eat of the bread of life and you will hunger no more. You will not want from the world because you will know that the Lord alone can satisfy! Beloved, feed on His Wonderful Words of Life! Don't just memorize them or read them or hear them, but feed on them.

You shall want no more.

~Carey