Faithbase

Psalms 23 verse 3. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the quiet waters. He restores my soul. And here's what he says at the end of verse 3. He leads me in the path of righteousness for his namesake. And that last part is so important, because someone, as someone who grew up in church, I am blessed, absolutely blessed, to have parents that love Jesus. They loved each other. They raised us in the church and they taught us to serve the church, because that is the body of Christ. That it's easy to sit on the sideline and complain about the church. It takes a lot more energy and effort and love to get involved in the church and stop complaining and get involved and try to help fix those things that man has messed up. Not God, but man has messed up. All that to be said, as somebody who grew up in church, it can be so easy to want to walk that path of righteousness for my namesake. For everybody to see how good I am, how righteous I am, how devoted I am. Boy, Jesus is so lucky to have me on his team. That is the natural bent of our human heart when it comes to religion. Now what David is talking about right here is beyond religion. It's about that relationship. And again, he uses the relationship between the sheep and the shepherd to talk about how the shepherd leads them down that path of safety. But for us, it's beyond that. It's leading down a path of righteousness. And what that means, it simply means God's goodness, God's way, God's Word. Doing things the way God has told us to do them. Not our opinion, not our politics, not any of those things. And if those things happen to line up with God's Word, great. But God's Word is what is sovereign. It is what guides us. It is our North Star. It is what is true. And that we are to walk that path of righteousness today for His namesake, so that others can see in us Jesus. Because it's not about us. It's not about our name. It's not about our glory. It's about us walking that path of righteousness. And God blesses us on that path. That's the beautiful benefit of us walking that path, is He blesses us as we do it. But our ultimate purpose and reason for doing it is for His namesake. So I want to encourage you today, walk the path of righteousness. Live the kind of life that Jesus died for you to live, and He's instructed us to live through His Word, so that somebody else can see Jesus in you. So that Jesus will get the glory for the way that you live your life. And listen, you get to build up treasures in heaven because of it. So God bless. Have a great day. If there's any way that I can serve you, or your family, or pray for you, please shoot me a message. Let me know.