"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside still waters;
He restores my soul.
He leads me in the path of righteousness for His Name's sake.
Yea though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will not fear no evil for You are with me.
Your rod and Your staff they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup OVERFLOWS.
Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
LunaDove,
I completely understand how you feel. It's awful to stay on the path of righteousness and see your spouse, the one you love, choose evil and sin over and over again. It wears you out. You stand as a prayer warrior night after night after night, and you get tired. You fight off Satan and his lies and whispers, and you get tired.
Thankfully, our Abba is our shepherd. He's knows when His sheep are weary and He doesn't say, "Hey, I don't care! Keep fighting!" Nope, our Abba provides for us. He takes us to a green, lush, beautiful pasture and MAKES us lie down! He leads us right up the waters of rest. And then, He RESTORES us. He lifts us up on eagle's wings.
Then our Abba doesn't just ask us to go down the path of righteousness by ourselves, not knowing the way and afraid. He LEADS us, and we can follow by His example.
After a shepherd like that, we can walk right through the Valley of Affairs and Cybersex and sin and evil and death on every side, and we can KNOW that we are completely safe--because our shepherd is there with us. We can be confident. We have divine presence and divine protection. Hey--Abba has the rod and staff of the Shepherd!! No harm will come to us.
And after we have gone through h*ll here on earth, our Abba prepares us a feast of spiritual fullness and super-abundance right in front of the enemy. Yeah, the enemy "thought" he would get us by taking our spouse and snatching them into a life of sin and selfishness, but our Abba brought us through and now we're feasting in front of him. This is a PROMISE, LunaDove, that when we follow our Abba through the valley of death, He WILL give us spiritual maturity, fullness and feasting. He anoints our heads with oil and that signifies "dedicated to God and holy." Our lives WILL BE so full of mercy and love and every kind of abundance that it will be overflowing and blessing those around us.
My dear sister, you've been walking in the Valley of Death for a long time. Our Abba is taking you to the green, lush, peaceful, beautiful pasture and MAKING you lie down. He is leading you to the waters of rest and RESTORING you. So you stop fighting and standing for a little, rest and allow our Abba to restore you, and here we are, we will stand on your behalf. No--I'm not saying you should date someone else or let yourself fall for another guy right now. I'm saying REST. Repair and rebuild your soul. Enjoy some of the peace of God and treat yourself gently and lovingly. Then, after you have rested and you are restored--come stand with us again.
CJ
