The Prison Of Want
‘I SHALL NOT WANT’
O
THE
vercoming
SERIES
PSALM 23:1.
Do you feel better when you’ve more and worse when you’ve less? Are you always wanting
something bigger? Nicer? Faster? Newer? Is joy always one delivery away, one promotion
away, one makeover away? Does happiness come from something you deposit, drive,
drink, or dwell in? If so, you’re living in the prison of want. But there’s good news; you’ve
a visitor - One who can get you released!
Father today I want
When David said: ‘The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want,’ he found lasting pleasure
to thank You for
where discontent goes to die. He understood that what we have in God is greater than
everything You have
whatever we don’t have in life. He’d fi gured out two things:
done in my life.
1) Your stuff isn’t yours! When John D. Rockefeller died, someone asked, ‘How much did
Thank you Lord for
he leave?’ His accountant replied, ‘Everything!’
my health, thank You
2) Your stuff isn’t you! Jesus said, ‘Life is not defi ned by what you have …’
for my family, my job,
(Luke 12:15 TM). When God looks at you He sees your devotion and your faith, not your
my church and my
image or possessions.
faith. Thank You for
Doug McKnight was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at 32. Over the next 16 years,
dying on the cross that
it would cost him his career, his mobility and eventually his life. But he never lost
I might have eternal
his sense of gratitude. When his church friends asked him to compile a list of prayer
life. Lord there is
requests, he responded by sending them 18 blessings for which to be grateful, and
nothing I have which
six concerns for which to be prayerful. His blessings were three times greater than his
can compare to this;
needs. Doug discovered that what he had in God was greater than whatever he didn’t
in one moment You
have in life. Have you?
provided me with an
eternal future with
You – thank You.
The Importance Of Being
Anointed
‘YOU ANOINT MY HEAD WITH OIL’ PSALM 23:5.
Father I come to You
In Bible times, shepherds anointed their sheep with oil for two purposes: today as a person that
1) To repel insects. If insects are allowed to deposit their eggs in the soft membrane of
doesn’t understand
the sheep’s nose, the eggs become wormlike larvae, driving the sheep insane. The ewes
why things go
stop milking and the lambs stop growing. So the shepherd anoints the sheep’s head
wrong, why life hurts
with an oil-like repellent that keeps the enemy at bay and the fl ock at peace.
sometimes or why it’s
2) To heal wounds. Most wounds result from living with the fl ock. Thorns prick, rocks cut,
just plain difficult other
times. I recognise Your
or a sheep rubs its head too hard against a tree. The shepherd regularly inspects them
ways are higher than
because he doesn’t want today’s wound to become tomorrow’s infection. So he pours on
my way as I come into
the healing oil. Are you getting the picture?
Your presence and
Whether circumstances are driving you crazy, or you’ve just been wounded as a result of ask for Your anointing,
living with the fl ock, there are two things you need to do: First, go to the Shepherd. Before that will break the
you go to anybody else, go to God. Why? Because ‘He heals the brokenhearted and binds
yoke of hardship and
up their wounds’ (Psalm 147: 3 NIV). Second, bow before Him. To be anointed, the sheep
heartache. I pray for
must lower their heads and let the shepherd apply the oil. Humble yourself. Call on the
Your anointing of
Lord. ‘God will always give what is right to His people who cry to Him …He will not be
peace and wellbeing
slow to answer them’ (Luke 18:7 NCV). Sheep don’t understand how the oil works; but
that I might live for
tomorrow, in
they don’t have to. It’s enough to know that something happens in the presence of their
Jesus’ Name.
shepherd that happens nowhere else. So get into His presence today!
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