Friday – Week Three

He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.

The Good Shepherd is leading you toward what will nourish and refresh your soul. He is getting you to the places where you can have satisfaction, find peace, grow, and be blessed. But, you’ve got to choose to what to do as He leads you there.

The reality is, some sheep are stubborn and will not eat in the pasture or drink from the quiet waters. Even when the text says that He “makes me lie down” it isn’t in the sense of He forces you. You’ve heard the phrase, “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” Well, same is true with sheep. Makes me lie down here is more akin to settles us down in. The shepherd gets us to where we need to be, places that we could not find on our own. He gets us to the places where the grass grows and the water runs gently. We choose what we do when we get there.

Don’t be a stubborn sheep.

Too often, rather than take advantage of what God has placed in front of us, we’d rather try to find satisfaction on our own in places where we’ll never find it. Instead of grazing on the green grass, we’d prefer to eat trash and rocks. We think it’s going to fill us up, but it never does.

I have a friend who said the same thing every time he began a relationship. “This is the one.”

Every time.

There were a lot of ones.

He was sure that each relationship was going to be the one that brought him happiness, each girl was going to be the one who brought him fulfillment. He was wrong. A lot.

We all are from time to time. He’s no different than us. Instead of the green field he thought he was going to find nourishment in a different spot. We do the same. Each of us filling our lives us with stuff, hoping that it will complete us, but it never does. So we keep chasing. Some think it’s found in relationships. They think that intimacy with someone, emotionally or physically, will provide for what they are missing. Others turn to substances. They drink, smoke, shoot up, all with that same hope that maybe this will fill the emptiness they experience. Some turn to busyness. Keep running and doing. Maybe in the pursuit of everything they can maybe find something.

None of it works though. Ultimate satisfaction is never found in any of those places, or any other we try to find on our own. The Good Shepherd alone leads us to green pastures and quiet waters.

John chapter four tells of a woman who thought she was going to find satisfaction for her life on her own. Jesus finds her at a well in the heat of the day. She’s been going from relationship to relationship, hoping to find the thing her soul longs for. The more she searches the more she realizes she hasn’t found it. So, she keeps chasing. She’s had five husbands already to this point. Five husbands today gets people talking and gossiping. Five husbands then was downright scandalous. Five husbands have come and gone, and now she is living with a man who isn’t even her husband.

See a pattern here? She’s chasing something and had never been able to grab hold of it. Most of us have been there at some point. Maybe not with relationships, but with something that we were sure would fill the need we had. It didn’t.

Jesus meets that woman where she is, as she is. He doesn’t throw her under the bus for being foolish or for making profound mistakes. Instead, He reminds her of this important truth: you will never quench your thirst drinking from empty wells. Only the living water can fill your soul. Stop chasing things that can never satisfy you. Drink from the Living Water – Jesus.

You’ve probably been trying to drink from empty wells. Whether it be relationships or substances, activities or business, you’ve gone places thinking you’d find what you were looking for in it. You didn’t find true satisfaction though, did you? Maybe for a moment, but it was only for a moment. It didn’t last because it couldn’t last. Your life was designed for something else.

The Good Shepherd loves you. He is leading you to a place where there is green grass and quiet waters. He is putting what will satisfy you right in front of you. He will satisfy your soul.

But you have to choose to eat and drink. Don’t be a stubborn sheep. Stop chasing that which will always leave you empty and instead be filled by the Bread of Life and Living Water!

Questions for Today

1. What wells have you been drinking from? Where has been your go to in your quest to find satisfaction and fulfillment?
2. If you know the Good Shepherd loves you and that He provides what you need so that you lack nothing, why do you resist resting in the green pastures and drinking from the quiet waters?
3. What is one way today that you can lie down in the green pastures?

Prayer for Today

Lord, I tend to drink from wells that run dry. I fill my life with junk rather than on what nourishes. Help me today find my contentment, fulfillment, and satisfaction in what You provide. Help me drink from what lasts and not from what is temporary. Fill me up today as I graze in the green pastures and let me find refreshment in the quiet waters You have led me to.

Amen.