Following the Good Shepherd: Day 9 - Pastor Kerry Shook
Can’t play the video? Click here to watch!
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”
Psalm 23:5a (NIV)
There’s something about this part of the Shepherd’s Psalm that runs counterintuitive to our thinking, but it holds the secret to persevering in the midst of adversity. Jesus warned us that we would experience problems and troubles in this world. In John 16:33 (NIV), He said, “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
I love the way Oswald Chambers explains it in his classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest. “The typical view of the Christian life is that it means being delivered from all adversity. But it actually means being delivered in adversity, which is something very different.” This is the point David realized when he penned Psalm 23:5a and wrote, “You prepare a table before me IN the presence of my enemies.” Have you ever considered that before? That God is preparing a table for you, a table of peace, a table of purpose, a table of provision, a table of hope, not away from your enemies and the problems and pain of life, but in the presence of them! None of us would pray for pain and problems. Nor does God exempt His sheep from experiencing them. This isn’t heaven. We live in a fallen and sinful world, and we are all affected by it whether by choice or circumstances. So how can we live with victory and experience peace in the midst of our pain and problems? By staying intimately connected with our Shepherd! Despite what you are going through, consider now for a moment, that God is preparing a table for you in the midst of it all! Chambers adds this insight, “God does not give us overcoming life – He gives us life as we overcome. The strain of life is what builds our strength. If there is no strain, there will be no strength. … Our temptation is to face adversities from the standpoint of our own common sense. But a saint can ‘be of good cheer’ even when seemingly defeated by adversities, because victory is so ludicrously impossible to anyone but God.”
Are you feeling overwhelmed by problems? Take courage, God is preparing a table for you of provision and purpose in the midst of them that is building your character and strength in ways you can’t begin to imagine! Take a moment right now and sit down at the table He has prepared for you. You will not be defeated. God has prepared it for you. It is the place where you are at one with God!