The Lord is always my Shepherd

A Psalm of David. Ps23     The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2     He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3     He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness     for his name's sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,     I will fear no evil, for you are with me;     your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me     in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil;     my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me     all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord     forever. This morning we spent time praying through Psalm 23, the next memory verse in our weekly "Truth Exists in our Hearts" memory verse prayer initiative with each other and friends. We desire to live prayer filled dependent on God lives, moment by moment, day by day. Each week as we think about the many things we can pray about and bring to the Lord I admit, sometimes, I have no idea what new topics to bring up to my friends. But we pray. We look at the word, we look at God, we praise Him, in tests time, in busy times, in peaceful times. We pray. Looking through Psalm 23, we found comfort in having confidence in our Lord being our Shepherd. Knowing He provides all we need and His providence and care is perfect for us in His will. We thanked Him and trusted in Him. We prayed through the Word for other lessons God is teaching us. We prayed for our mercy times to help the homeless in the new winter season and to break our heart to care for them and love them. We saw the gospel come alive in remembering we did nothing to deserve God's love for us, nothing to deserve Jesus' death- yet we receive love and forgiveness simply by faith and repentance, turning away from our own self-centered lives and turning to a God-centered Kingdom life. It was a great time of prayer and rest in the Lord. Little did I know, my heart would be shaken just a few minutes later when we returned home and just read the news, the social media, the articles, the blogs- everywhere we heard of the typhoon disaster impacts. Just yesterday it reached places in Asia where we know friends and friends families. I don't know how I could think, oh what should we pray about today, because in reality there is just so much we need to talk with the Lord about. So, what do we do and how do we face these times? What are you doing? How are you helping? One thing we'll do is we will pray. We will continue to pray for the world and the brokenness and the darkness. And trust simply by faith. We will long more for Jesus' return and a world with no tears, no sin, no pain, no loss, no typhoons. Join us? Let's ask the Lord how we can pray, how we can bring comfort because we know the true comforter, how we can hope because we know where to put our hope. How we can give and put our treasures in heaven instead of our own accounts/savings/things because we have been given much and we are not in want, how we can care and love for others, because we know what it is like to be cared for in our constant desperate need for a caretaker, our Lord, our Shepherd. Let's pray that we can trust that God is still good, still sovereign, still Shepherd, in the midst of these disasters, loss, hurt, tears, pain. How are you praying? Any ways to help that you can share with us that you're a part of? How are you doing in these times? Are you broken too? Whether we are near or far, the first step is to get closer. To get out of our own little worlds and get bigger. Let's pray and ask the Lord to move. Lord, we are praying for the people of the phillippines, vietnam and china, many of our dear friends families that they too would know that our Lord is still Shepherd of all. Many natural disasters happen often and everytime we stop and think of how we have much and how fortunate we are. Even in the midst of thanksgiving month, let us be thankful. Not just thankful for ourselves and what we have but thankful that You are the true giver. We are praying for peace, protection, for help, restoration and hope. Praying that, still, in the midst of a disastrous deadly tropical cyclone, we can rest in You and still have confidence in Your care  Oh, sovereign Lord, bring peace and restoration, bring people to come to know You and rest in You so that faced with death- they would have no fear. In You Lord, we shall not want, we shall not lack any thing you don't give us. Bring comfort and healing. Help us to be Your hands and Your feet, sharing Your heartbeat. Thank You that You listen to our prayers. We love You Lord and we trust in You. God let Your name, Your glory be known in this world. Let Your love, Your power, Your hand be known. Let us be prayers, givers and goers. Alive for You. Lead us, Lord. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Join us to put God's Word in our hearts so we can live our in Truth and Deeds
a true Spirit-filled life with our weekly memory verses.
This week: Psalm 23:1-4

Love, Mrs Chu