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He Makes Me Lie Down In Green Pastures


The Lord is my shepherd… He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, (Psalm 23:1a & 2)

          Ah, peace, quiet, green pastures and still waters. This is the life! Yep, you gotta love a shepherd who provides such luxuries. But the passage doesn’t say provides. It says makes and leads. Now if we happen to want to go in the direction of those green pastures or quiet waters it’s in freedom that we follow Him there, but that’s not what it says, either. It says He makes and leads. So it doesn’t matter whether we want to go or not. If we do not go willingly, we go against our will.
          That’s where a lot of us are today. We don’t want to lie down in these pastures, whether they’re green or not. We don’t want to be beside quiet waters. We want to do what we want to do. Sure, the green pasture might be fun for a little while, but day after day?
           “It’s getting a little boring, Shepherd. Isn’t it time we moved on?”
          “You know, I really need to get back to the fold, there’s stuff I need to do.”
           We think we know better. We chafe at being hemmed in. But the Shepherd makes us lie down. He leads us beside quiet waters. And I (at least) grit my teeth at God or at the pain in my knee (Yes, I’ll say it’s the latter, it sounds more spiritual) as I once again hear the Shepherd saying “Lie down here. Bow the knee to My will.”
            One of the characters in my stories repeatedly asks another what he is trying to tell her without telling her this time, and what is he trying to tell her this time. It went into the story because that’s such a part of our lives with God. I often agree with God, I’m just not getting it. But it’d be so much easier if He explained (and got my approval) about it. This making me lie down, and leading me by another boring shoreline. I mean, it’s the same pasture and the same shoreline as yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. Isn’t it time to stop circling this mountain and go conquer the Promised Land or something?
          But if we’re not willing to settle down, sometimes, He makes us. The Israelites didn’t give their land the rest that God commanded, so God removed them from the land for the length of time that they should have let the land rest. If we resist when He tells us to lie down in green pastures or walk beside the still waters, He may do something that takes away other possibilities. He may make us lie down. We’re free to do as He asks, but if we’d rather be made to do it as slaves, He may just give us what we want.

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