In Psalm 23 we read how our Good Shepherd desires to lead us. Verse 2-3 says, “He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”

The question we have to ask ourselves is “Am I following?” Isaiah 64:6 says that our righteousness is like filthy rags. Isaiah 32:17 says, “The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.”

As we walk on His paths of righteousness, we will experience true inner peace and joy. Peace and joy are irrevocable gifts. They remain no matter what adversities we face. Romans 11:29. Check your spiritual pulse. Is your spirit quiet or churned up? Do you live in spiritual vitality or emotional fatigue?

Psalm 131:2 says, “Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.” Our soul is our mind, will, and emotions. They are intertwined like a braid ~ indistinguishable.

Wallpaper this verse on your heart. Psalm 85:13 says, “Righteousness will go before Him, and shall make His footsteps our pathway.” The Lord always goes before us ~ divinely orchestrating and preparing His way for us.

Psalm 119:33 says, “Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end.” Psalm 103:7. It says, “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.”

Think back to the crossing of the Red Sea. The Lord told Moses what He was going to do. The children of Israel saw what He did. Huge difference. I want to know His ways. So did David.

David’s prayer is mine as well. Psalm 25:4 says, “Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths.” Psalm 18:30 says, “As for God, His way is perfect…” Verse 32 says, “It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect.”

In Psalm 139:23-24 David prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart…and lead me in the way everlasting.” Help us follow You!

I’m reading 1 Kings. Solomon compromised. In the first part of his kingship he loved the Lord. He accomplished building the temple. In 1 Kings 8 he sincerely honored the Lord in the dedication.

What happened? 1 Kings 11:1 says, “But King Solomon loved many foreign women…” Verse 2 reiterated the Lord’s command “…You shall not intermarry with them…Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love.” Verse 3 says, “…his wives turned away his heart.”

As I read the account, my mind went back to Keith Green’s album “No Compromise.” Years ago I read his book with the same title. Yet what happened? He compromised by overloading a small airplane. He and all that were with him tragically perished in the crash.

In 2 Samuel 11, David did not go out to lead his army in war. He compromised by staying at home. His sin with Bathsheba bore adverse consequences throughout the rest of his life and his sons.

Anytime we disobey God’s way, we too will fall for temptations to compromise. Remain steadfast and immovable!

We are created in His image. Genesis 1:26. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that He has put eternity into every heart. We are created to live forever. We have a beginning on earth, but we have no end in eternity. Jesus died so that we could live with Him. 

John 1:13 was written about believers. It says, “Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” God’s will for us is written in His eternal word.

Romans 8:29 says that our progressive journey of sanctification is designed to conform us to His image. He gave us His written word, so that we could bring it into our hearts. It is the resurrection power of His word that brings the inner transformation when we hide it in our hearts.

His hidden word acts like yeast in bread dough. It permeates to affect our mind, will, and emotions. It is like oil that seeps down into our hearts to expose, soften, and dislodge the areas hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Hebrews 3:13.

I started memorizing Psalm 119:152. It says, “Concerning Your testimonies, I have known of old that You have founded them forever.” My mind immediately transferred from forever to eternal.

Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God…” The One who created all things is eternal. That means that He always was and will be. Revelation 1:8 says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Deuteronomy 33:27 says, “The eternal God is your refuge…” John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Verse 14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”

1 John 1:1 says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life.”

Unforgiveness is disobedience to God’s word. We are to forgive AS we have been forgiven. When we ignore that command, it weighs our hearts down. We become a stumbling block to others. When we finally obey His word, it takes away a burden we didn’t realize we were carrying.

Bitterness is one fruit of unforgiveness. It is poisonous and inedible. An unforgiving heart is tormented. Matthew 18:34. Psalm 66:18 says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” Buried unforgiveness blocks His grace, and is another reason for unanswered prayer.

Though this was written about Israel, we can make a personal application. Ezekiel 20:37 says, “I will make you pass under the rod…” When we ask the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts, we come under the life-giving scrutiny of our Shepherd’s rod.

Psalm 139:23-24 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Let this life-skill prayer be woven into the fabric of our lives.

I pondered Psalm 119:149 as I was memorizing it. It says, “Hear my voice according to Your lovingkindness; O Lord, revive me according to Your justice.” Why did the writer use the word justice in relationship to revive?

I looked up the Hebrew on biblos.com and it gave the Strong’s as judgment, ordinance, or act of deciding a case. I asked one of my pastors to explain. Here are his words, “The Word of God is the standard for His judgment of our lives and obedience to that Word. If justice is on view, His righteous examination of our obedience, as judged according to His word and our further obedience, even if through correction, brings revival and revitalization.”

His explanation took me to Hebrews 12:11. Our trials are divinely orchestrated to bring us into greater conformity to His image. The verse ends with, “…afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

We recently reviewed God’s way of forgiveness. I encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any hidden heart-unforgiveness. 

I write for an online devotional ministry once a month. They emailed changes for me to approve. As I sent back my email, the Lord spoke these two words “proud flesh.” Hmm.

Proud flesh is a medical term. It means that tissue grows beyond the wound’s margins. Hyper granulation: tissue protrudes above the skin’s surface. Think of scar tissue which is hard.

Let’s take that into a spiritual application. When we are emotionally wounded, the Lord empowers us through His grace to forgive right then. However when we react in fleshly pride we block His gift. James 4:6 says, “…God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Hebrews 3:13 is a great definition for blocked grace. It says, “…hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” Offenses will come. Satan’s deceptive suggestions are designed temptations to get revenge, stuff it, use it as gossip, or reject the one who hurt us.

God’s way is to forgive from the heart the moment we are offended. Matthew 18:34-35. Ephesians 4:30, and Colossians 3:13. Jesus paid for those sins against us on the cross.

James 1:2 says, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.” The Lord can and often stops us in our tracks through adversity from Himself or others.

Proverbs 8:13 says, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.” Ask yourself this question: do I hate my flesh? Years ago there was a dear believer. He used the analogy that you starve the goat and feed the sheep, or you feed the sheep and starve the goat. 

We starve our goat-flesh when we feed our spirit man. Galatians 5:16 says that when we walk in the Spirit, we will deny our fleshly lusts. Our spirit man feeds on God’s word. It is His pasture and still waters that our Good Shepherd leads us to daily. 

Ephesians 3:16 Amplified says, “May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the (Holy) Spirit (Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality).”

Proverbs 29:1 says, “He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. Think back to Absalom’s life. There is another account that clearly shows us how the Lord can be our Adversary.

God gave Baalam strict orders to not go with the Moabite king’s men. Yet he did. Numbers 22:22 says, “Then God’s anger was aroused because he went, and the Angel of the Lord took His stand in the way as an adversary against him…”

Have you ever felt hemmed in? Verse 24 says, “…a wall on this side and on that side…” Verse 26 says, “Then the Angel of the Lord went further, and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left.”

Verse 32 says, “…Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because your way is perverse before Me.” Proverbs 28:18 says, “…he who is perverse will suddenly fall.” Perverse is a great definition of our flesh and pursuing our own way which is insolent pride!