He Leads Me Beside Still Waters

Yesterday, Friday, August 18, 2023, my husband Rick and I went for a morning walk at Park Road Park in Charlotte, North Carolina (USA). I like to take pictures when I am at the park, and this one that I am posting here is one that I took yesterday. I was drawn to this particular scene. I could feel it in my emotions. Something about it made it special to me and I just had to capture it on my camera (smartphone). 

I have looked at that picture several times since then, and I still feel this drawing in my emotions to this scene. So, I was asking myself, “What about this scene was speaking to me? Why am I so captivated by it?” And then the Lord Jesus began to give me some insight into it all. The lone bench gives a message of solitude, of quiet, and of peace. It is a message of comfort, too. And it reminds me of the 23rd Psalm in some ways, too.

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

     He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

     He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness

    for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

    I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

    your rod and your staff,

    they comfort me.” Psalms 23:1-4 ESV

My husband Rick had reminded me yesterday, too, of how my favorite place at my church camp (Beulah Beach Camp in Vermillion, Ohio) was a park bench overlooking Lake Erie, for that is where I would go to spend alone time with the Lord. That is where I went to pray and to read the Scriptures and to talk to the Lord. That was my place of solitude where I met with God and I listened to him speak truth to my heart and I responded to his voice to me in obedience to what he was teaching me. And that is where he comforted me and he encouraged my heart. He was and is my best friend!

But then as I think about this 23rd Psalm in relation to where we walked yesterday, I can also see a

connection with the path that we walked on which went all around the lake. And there was this part in the walk where the path went two different directions. One went up and one went down, and it reminded me of that old song which said, “You take the high road and I’ll take the low road, and I’ll be in…” And that reminds me of how we have a choice to take either God’s way or our own way of the flesh. For our Lord leads us in paths of righteousness, not in the ways of our sinful flesh.

Making the right choice then leads us to being seated on that park bench overlooking the water listening

to the Lord speak truth into our hearts and lives. This is why I was feeling a drawing to this picture (scene), for this is representative of God’s drawing us to enter into fellowship with him, and to be still before him and to just listen to what he wants to say to our hearts. Then, even if we go through difficult trials to test our faith we can be at peace in knowing that we have nothing to fear, for we can rest in Him.

My Sheep  

An Original Work / June 24, 2012  

Based off John 10:1-18 NIV

My sheep hear me. They know me.

They listen to my voice and obey.

I call them and lead them.

They know my voice, so they follow me.

They will never follow strangers.

They will run away from them.

The voice of a stranger they know not;

They do not follow him.

So, I tell you the truth that

I am the gate, so you enter in.

Whoever does enter

Will find forgiveness and will be saved.

Nonetheless whoever enters

Not by the gate; other way,

He is the thief and a robber.

Listen not, the sheep to him.

Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,

Who laid his own life down for the sheep.

I know them. They know me.

They will live with me eternally.

The thief only comes to steal and

Kill and to destroy the church.

I have come to give you life that

You may have it to the full… 

They know my voice, so they follow me.

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