DEVOTIONAL
“He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.”
Psalm 23:3 NASBS
Beloved of God, the great Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, pursued you in the midst of your vile corruptions, and He brought you into the green pastures of His truth. He did this through grace by showing you His law that reflected the darkness of your own soul.
It was at that time you saw the iron shackles of sin that was holding you in bondage, with no hope whatsoever. This was God’s love towards you, but He did not leave you there. He purchased you through the shedding of His blood on Calvary when He laid His life down, bringing you out of your state of defilement.
For you were helpless and Christ died for you, delivering you from the wrath to come. So now, Christian, you can cry out as David, “He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.” How deep the love is, that lies within the heart of a sovereign God Who is majestic in all of His ways.
For it is He Who holds the world together and displays His love to godless people by redeeming them for Himself. There is nothing more infinite, more tender, more unchanging, than the love of God that surpasses understanding. How much gratitude should we show to the Lord, understanding the darkness we have been delivered from. For some of you were fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of God.
You see beloved, the love of Jesus goes beyond what we could ever imagine. He changes our deepest affections that were bent toward sin, to pursue holiness, restoring our souls to Himself.
Christian, is he not worthy of all of our praise. For not only did He restore our souls to Himself, but he keeps and sustains our faith in Him as well. The word of word of God tells us concerning this, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “For YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.”
But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
For those whom the father has given to the son, he will not cast out one, but he will raise him up on the last day. So, even when our hearts wonder, He pursues us, bringing us back to Him. Just as Jesus teaches, “If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.”
Oh, “The breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.” Christian, may your soul be comforted today.