The Lord Is My Shepherd Part 1

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.

Psalm 23

As I read the twenty-third Psalm the first word that catches my attention is "Lord". I think it is important that we contemplate the meaning of that word. There is a difference between the Lordship of Christ and His Saviorhood.

Many today, and in history, have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, but really don’t understand how to allow Him to be the Lord of their life. Others understand but aren’t willing to allow Him to be Lord.

One way to look at the difference is that when we trust the Lord Jesus as our Savior we trust Him for our eternal destination. When we accept Him as our Savior we can have assurance that we will spend eternity with Him. When we allow Him to become the Lord of our lives He assumes control of our moment by moment lives here on earth. We consistently seek His counsel and follow His will in all we do.

He does this through the ministry of the Holy Spirit who indwells us at the moment of salvation. His desire is that we remain full of the Holy Spirit. That, however, is our responsibility. Ephesians 5:18 exhorts Christians to "be filled with the Spirit". We do not receive more of the Spirit, but the Spirit has more of us. The phrase means that we are to continue being filled. The Holy Spirit desires a moment by moment relationship with us, but that relationship may be hindered by sin in our lives. Filling is that ministry which is accomplished in the believer when he is fully yielded to the indwelling Holy Spirit.

As we are filled with the Spirit we will carry out the exhortation of Paul in Galatians 5:16 which says "walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh". Here we have a command "walk by the Spirit" and a promise "you will not carry out the desire of the flesh".

I pray that you will allow Jesus to be the Lord of your life. In doing so, you will carry out His will and will be richly blessed.