The Lord is my shepherd Ps 23:1a
Read: Gen 28:10-22
When Jacob escaped from his home to avoid being killed by his brother Esau, he encountered God in a very unique way. That night he had fallen asleep using a stone as a pillow. Unknown to him, Abraham had earlier used that stone to set up an altar. In his sleep, he had a vision and this is what God said:
“I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Gen 28:13-15
What was Jacob’s response?
“If God will be with me… and give me BREAD TO EAT AND CLOTHING TO PUT ON, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then theLord shall be my God. Gen 28:20,21
God had promised him “heaven and earth” literally, but here was Jacob asking God for “bread to eat and clothes to wear” come on! What? Was he that dumb? No he wasn’t. He was a sheep that knows that the Lord owns him, only he hadn’t owned the Lord yet. He hadn’t come to the full realization that all the Lord owns is for him.
We all struggle with this concept. It is too big and overwhelming for the human mind to comprehend much less accept. How can I own God? How can I own everything God owns? We prefer to rather just rest with the knowledge that God owns us. It comes out in all that we do. Yet this is one purpose praise should serve in our lives.
When we praise God with such wonderful adulations like: “Creator of the heaven and the earth”, “Greater than the greatest”, Alagbara, Idi Ebube…. Do you really think it has an impression on God? God already knows that He created the heavens and the earth, we were not there. If anyone needs reminding it is you and me. He knows that He is almighty, all powerful, all glorious, we can’t remind Him of what He is and has always been, but do we truly accept that all of what God is, He is for me only? All of what God owns is for me. It is really too staggering to accept.
That is the turning point of the lamb. I own the shepherd. The Lord is mine! Everything else pales into insignificance. I repeat Paul’s prayer that you come to that day when the eyes of your understanding is enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints are.
© THE LAMB OF GOD
DeepWords Devotional
Transforming Word Series 