Reading the Bible has become a daily routine for me in my spiritual life and also a necessity in understanding God.
One of the Bible verses I’ve come to understand more and in a new light is the famous psalm 23.
The verse:
The rod and staff, they comfort me.
It makes me understand the dynamics of what our relationship is to be with God.
From a personal experience of life, I am a strong Will person and I love to work with my knowledge of life even if I know it’s going to cause me some danger along the way. I am resolved that it’s part of the lessons of life and even if it comes to a situation of “had I known”, I can live with that.
But when I came into Christ, the Lord had been doing some shedding. Passions have been dieing, inclinations have been changing. My belief system has been in chaos and even strongholds have been broken down.
To be honest, I can’t recognize myself again. It’s like I’m getting rebranded in Christ.
Before Christ, being exposed to a form of knowledge, it has allowed me to form a definition of who I am, who I’m supposed to be and what my purpose in life is supposed to be.
Then Christ came to show me His own template and it is like, I had earlier settled for less.
In psalm 23, David the author of that particular chapter shows the dynamics of a shepherd and a sheep. Being particular about the rod and staff and how they actually comfort us.
The Lord is our shepherd and through faith, we are supposed to allow him to guide us and trust that he knows better than us. But because we are corrupted from Adam, sometimes we obstruct the plan of God for our lives.
We struggle to do away with vain passions, self-will, wicked inclinations when God asks us to. This self-destructive interest of our makes God use his rod and staff to guide us like a sheep that we are.
When you research about sheep, they are gullible to say the least. Gullible we are to become in the hands of God, because He knows the beginning and the end. He is our creator and when we come to him, he does restructuring work for us.
This restructuring sometimes can cause us pain, hurt, seem like it’s a heavy cross to carry. But we should know that this is where our comfort is. Because Christ, who is the author and finisher of our faith also carried His cross to the glorification of God.
In our work with God, he will from time to time use his Rod and staff to guide us and show us where and how to go. We are in this heavy distress and have faith that even though it brings pain, hurt, it’s for the best.
God’s word says
”For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.“ Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV
When the rod and staff comes, we should remain steadfast in His love and trust that His plans are best for us.