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Inspirational Article From
Joanne Lowe

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“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”

Psalm 23 King James Version

We sing the song “He leadeth me, O blessed thought!” but are we following Him? Are we allowing Him to lead us up to the mountain top of joy or are we going our own way which leads us to the valley of despair? He will guide and lead us but He won’t make us follow. He gives us a choice to follow Him, or to follow satan. Nobody can make that choice for us. Each one of us has to make the decision to follow Him.

We will never be able to lead someone to Jesus if we aren’t following Him ourselves. I think that if we would listen with our hearts that we would Him saying “I love you and I long to lead you into happiness and joy.” He loves us so much that He died for us. There is no greater love than the love of Jesus and our Heavenly Father.

Sometimes when we take trips we get lost even while following the directions on a map. If we will follow Jesus, we will never get lost. There is a song that I used to sing in Sunday School “He knows the way through the wilderness.” He not only knows the way through the wilderness; He also knows the way through the difficult situations in our lives.

There are times when we allow our hearts to become cold and indifferent because of the hateful and cruel words and hateful and cruel actions that have been said and done to us. It is then that our Shepherd plucks the weeds of bitterness, hatred, jealousy, criticism and unforgiveness from our hearts and makes our hearts tender. He gives us compassion, forgiveness, kindness, and unconditional love for our families, for our friends and for a world that is lost and starving to know that somebody cares if they live or die.

Are you following Jesus today? Are you allowing Him to guide your footsteps and also your decisions? Have you experienced the heights of joy which are found when we follow Him? Have you laughed with Him and rejoiced with Him when a sinner was saved? There is no greater joy in the entire world than following Jesus and allowing Him to lead us up into the joyous mountains of happiness.

There’s another song that I love. It’s called “Have you decided to follow Jesus?” How about it? Have you decided to follow Jesus? If so, are you willing to follow Him all the way or just until He takes you out of your comfort zone? Sometimes He asks us to do something that may not be convenient for us or fit into what we had planned for that day. Are you willing to do it even if it means a change of plans?

I don’t think it was convenient for Jesus to be tortured and die on the cross for us that day but He did it because He loves us so much. Our service to Him always comes back to this question “How much do I love Him and how much am I willing to give up for Him? Remember, our level of service depends on our level of love for Him. How much do you love Him?

Joanne Lowe
October 16, 2007

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