Thoughts Reflections and Inspirations

“Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.” This is God speaking to Israel in Isaiah 43:1. As His children, we also inherit this promise. When we belong to Him, He calls us by our name, and He with great pleasure says to us, “You are mine.” Jesus, the Good Shepherd, says something similar in John 10:27, 28, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”

The Good Shepherd knows us, knows what we are going through and knows what we are going to go through. We are safe with Him. No one, no person, man or woman or spirit or devil is ever able to tear us away from Him. This is the only secure place in the world.

He says, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you; when you walk through the fire you will not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon you. For I am the Lord your God.” He says, “You are precious in my sight, and I have loved you.” Isaiah 43:2-4

The Good Shepherd says further, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” I Corinthians 1:13

Because our Good Shepherd rose from the dead, we as His sheep will also. This is why death is not such a dreadful thing to God’s people. We are sorrowful when someone dies because we miss them here and now, but if they were born again and walking with the Lord, we know after a little while we’ll be with them again. It is alright to miss them but we must remember that they are now much better off then we are.

“But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” I Corinthians 15:20. Now because of that we can say with verse 55 in the same chapter, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” Verse 56, “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.” If we are free from sin by being washed in the blood of Jesus, then that sting of death is removed.

Verse 57 says, ‘But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Verse 58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” What a promise!

Remove the fear of death from a person and he will be hard to stop. We have been given these exceeding great and precious promises so we can be delivered from all fear and walk with the Good Shepherd with great joy.

A further reason that the valley of the shadow of death does not need to drive us to fear is found in II Corinthians 5:1-8. In my own words, he is saying here that if our body dies, we as God’s people have a better one that never dies. It is an eternal body. Now we know our spirit does not die like our body does. but he is telling us here that there is one made for us that never dies. Then in verses 6-8, he tells us that when our body that we are in now dies, we go into the presence of the Lord, our Good Shepherd.

An example of this is Stephen, the first martyr. We read of him in Acts, chapter 6 and 7. When Stephen was preaching, those who rejected his message got so angry that they began to stone him to death, but Stephen was full of the Holy Ghost and looked up stedfastly into heaven. His focus was not on those who were killing him. He was certainly now in the valley of the shadow of death. Then he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. They stoned Stephen who was calling on God, and he was saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”, and after that he said, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” Then it says Stephen fell asleep, meaning his body died.

This truth, when believed, will set a person free from the fear of the valley of the shadow of death. In death, the presence of the Good Shepherd becomes more real then ever.

The reason David could say, “I will fear no evil” is because he knew, for sure, that the Lord was with him. We are invited to live with the Good Shepherd in a way that when an emergency comes upon us suddenly we don’t need to go and find the Lord quick. To many, God is a God far off, not a Good Shepherd that I walk with all the time.

When the Lord is with you, you have instant access to Him. He is almighty and all knowing and He responds to the cry of His people. Often in travel, an accident was about to happen and a quick prayer set things right again. This is not unusual. How often could we avoid accidents or stop them if we were more mindful of the Good Shepherd than we are of 911.

Fear often will paralyze a person. Fear brings torment and often with it, wrong responses. II Timothy 1:7 says, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” This kind of fear is the opposite of faith. We can ask the Good Shepherd for power, love, and a sound mind and He will give it to us. He is waiting for us to ask.

We live in a world where there are many fearful things and we are often confronted by these things, but we have the power to choose not to be motivated, controlled or manipulated by fear.

Most people with a sound mind will do about anything to stay alive. When a death threatening danger confronts them, the adrenalin kicks in and they struggle and fight as hard as they can to survive, The will to live and to do what it takes to live, including the adrenalin rush, is something God put in us when He created us.

There is, however, a place to walk in life that brings us above the normal place of fear that so many struggle with. In Psalms 23:4, David testified, “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,”

Have you ever faced death? Have you been in a situation where you thought, “This is it. I’m not going to survive this one.”? Or, perhaps you’ve been at the bedside of a friend or relative that was about to pass on. This has an effect on a person like nothing else can. You are face to face with the reality of how short life is and how weak we as human beings really are.

During his lifetime, David had faced death very often, but he had a relationship with the Good Shepherd to the extent that he could say at a time like that, “I will fear no evil”. This is something that those who do not have such a relationship, cannot understand.