Trusting Jesus as Our Shepard | Psalms 23

 This episode explores the importance of letting Jesus lead our lives, especially during difficult times, through the lens of Psalms 23. Join us as we discuss how surrendering control to God can bring peace, the spiritual warfare we face, and practical ways to experience divine rest and restoration.

Timestamps:00:00 - Introduction: trusting Jesus as our shepherd in challenging times
02:17 - Reflection on Psalms 23: its deeper meaning and personal significance
03:38 - The importance of rest in Jesus and offering our stress to Him
05:20 - A child's insight on leadership and the parallels to trusting God's guidance
06:43 - The exhaustion of self-leadership and the chaos without Jesus
07:47 - The reality of spiritual leadership—God, ourselves, or Satan
09:07 - Recognizing pride in trying to handle everything alone
10:23 - The influence of worldly culture and social media in leading our hearts
11:48 - The comparison trap and minimizing exposure to social media's negative influence
12:36 - The humorous reel about surrendering control to the Trinity
13:31 - The challenge of trusting God's timing and surrendering control
14:42 - Pride as a barrier to fully trusting God and seeking His help
15:23 - The importance of bringing our burdens to God and not carrying bricks of stress
16:21 - Turning to praise and worship during stressful situations
17:12 - Spiritual warfare isn’t just a metaphor—it's real and requires our vigilance
18:49 - The desire to see into the spiritual realm for understanding and strength
20:04 - Viewing challenges as opportunities to strengthen faith and battle spiritually
21:06 - Scripture encouragement: facing struggles with joy and spiritual armor
22:25 - Visualizing spiritual strength with biblical imagery of warriors and armor
23:15 - The reassurance that God has already won the war, and our victory is assured
24:00 - Reflections on trusting God during grief and loss, patience, and perspective

Note: Remember, trusting Jesus completely and surrendering all your burdens are daily practices. Encourage yourself and others to put on spiritual armor every day, seek rest in His presence, and stand firm against spiritual attacks.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Hey Jen. How are you? I am good.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

How are you?

SPEAKER_01 1:33

I'm good and I'm hot. Yes. I don't like this. No, it's gonna be worse tomorrow. All this heat feels like summer.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Yes, like it scares me of what our summer is gonna be. Like was it was the first day of spring the 20th of Friday? Friday? Friday. So Saturday it hit a hundred. So the second day of spring it was a hundred already.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Yeah. And it'll be and it'll be a hundred tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

101 tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

I just want to go with the like what is the like how do we go from like 40 to 100? I don't know. And then I think we drink 20 or 30 degrees as a Sunday. Yeah, all of our allergies are like this is a funeral poster. No kidding. We're just kind of all over the place.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Oh man. Alright, well, are you ready? Yeah, let's do this. You want to pray us in? I sure can.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Dear Heavenly Father, we just come to you today to thank you for this day and thank you for um the beautiful weather that we had this morning. Lord, I just I love the the cooler temperatures and being able to go out and go on a walk and be in nature with you, Lord. Thank you for all of your blessings. Thank you for this podcast. Thank you for the ability to get together with my best friend and talk about you, Lord. We love you and we just pray that everything that we speak about today be in honor of you and that we need people towards you. Lord, it's in your mighty name that we pray.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Amen. Alright, so this chapter was about Psalms 23.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

I believe that was the title.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

We want to read Psalms 23.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Yeah, will you do that for us?

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Yeah, sure will.

unknown 3:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Alright. 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 paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 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. 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 shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Pretty good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Yeah, it is. It is.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

I think it means way more than we I don't want to say allow it to mean, but I think it it's it means a lot more than we take it seriously. We take it for granted, maybe that's the right way to say that.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Yeah, I think so. I I think so. And I think we we forget like that first part where it says I shall not want, he makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters. Like I think we forget sometimes how we can find rest in Jesus and how we can um be restored in our you know, our just soul can be replenished in that stillness. I forget about that sometimes, and sometimes I just forget about Psalms 23. I forget to go there. I don't think I'm glad you have it posted on your wall though. Me too, yeah. I I have that one along with a couple of other have Psalms 5110 up here too, which is a great one also that I like to say to myself, but yeah, I mean I definitely don't say Psalms 23 enough.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Me either. That's probably one I should well number one memorize, but also just post it around around my head and speak it every day.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Get it into my heart.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Yes. Yeah. So you know, this chapter was basically talking about letting Jesus lead you and um not allowing yourself to be led by worldly things. And uh I have a funny anecdote, something that happened today during group. Um I had a first grader that um I went and picked him up, and it's just him by himself um with me. And so I went and picked him up and we got back to my room and I was getting all my materials and things together for a lesson, and he said, Can I ask you a question? And I said, sure. And he said, Now listen, very smart kid. So this these were his actual words. These were his words. He said, Have you ever had to lead something and Jen just felt so exhausted by it? And I said, sure, yeah, I have. And he said, Well, I'm the leader of my friend group, which means that I'm responsible for coming up with all the games that we play at recess. And it's exhausting. And when I'm not there, I I just don't know how they survive without me. I was like, okay. And I just said, All right, like, yeah, I wonder how they survive without you. And I came home and thought about that, and I was like, that's kind of how I feel uh when I try to lead my own life, and I try to make decisions based off of my flesh or what would make me happy, or even just emotions. I'm a very emotional person, so sometimes I react based off of my emotions. Um, that's exhausting. Yes, it is. It's exhausting, and I'm like, I, you know, and when I don't ask Jesus to lead me in things, I, you know, I don't even know how how I'm surviving. Like, how am I surviving without him?

SPEAKER_00 8:22

You know, I'm more exhausted.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

And then yeah, it's just like instead of, I mean, it's a true like Jesus take the will, like that's a true saying, that's a true thing. Um, let him take the will.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

So and for a first grader to realize that, you're like, wow, you're wise beyond your years, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Yeah, it was just like it's exhausting. And I was like, Yeah, it sure is, buddy. But I just thought that was an interesting connection there of like, yeah, you know, that's how we feel when we try to lead everything all the time. And yes, and when we don't rely on Jesus to do that for us or to help guide us in that and to be our shepherd, I mean it's it will be complete chaos.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Yep. And somebody, somebody always leads. Is it is it gonna be God? Is it gonna be you? Or is it gonna be Satan? But somebody leads.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Yep, somebody's leading. You are absolutely right. Yep, and so when we learn to release control and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, you know, I think we're able to um extend some grace and we're able to have that soft heart. We're able to make decisions that um honor the Lord versus what you know honors us or makes us feel good. And yeah, um, yeah. So I really enjoyed reading that chapter. I thought, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Yeah, really it definitely spoke to me because I thought, oh goodness, I have been through some more times. And, you know, am I letting God lead so that I can rest? Or am I trying to control it? Or do I just go, okay, I'm just gonna, you know, let Satan lead. I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna be mad and I'm gonna react out of anger and I'm gonna let Satan win. Yeah. And I'll tell you, I've been guilty of of all I mean, I hate to say I'm guilty of letting God lead, but you know, yeah, I've been guilty of letting Satan lead and guilty of letting myself lead.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

There are times when I've let God lead.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yeah, same here, yeah. And it's it always yeah, and you know, it turns out so much better when you let him lead. Oh, it does. It's a whole lot of things.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Remember that in those moments, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Yeah, exactly. Um, and so there was there was something I wanted to read here. Let me see if I can find it real quick. Okay, 2 Peter 2.19 says, People are slaves to whatever has mastered them. So maybe the culture is going to lead you. The anthem of the world is going to lead you. You're going, you're going to go with whatever the social media flow is, and that's going to lead you. So um I thought I had to think about that for a little bit in like, what am I allowing to lead me? What worldly things am I allowing myself to be led into? And I know that for me for a long time, social media was what led me, right? You kind of get caught up in that comparison trap or what and expose you to, um, whether that's with what I'm watching on TV or music that I'm listening to or even just social media.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

I agree. I definitely fall into the comparison trap on social media. So I have to kind of minimize my exposure there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Um I I don't did you see the reel that I posted the other day? I think it was yesterday on my stories, on my Instagram stories. I don't know. I'm gonna have to. It was really funny. It made me think of me. So it was um, you know how you can buy the little miniature Jesus, Jesus' and so it had three, it it was three of them, like it was representing the Trinity, and it showed them like they were on a piece of furniture, and there's a lady in the background, and she's they're at home, like she's at home, she's vacuuming, she's way off in the background, right? And there's a voiceover, um, and it's like the Trinity is having a little meeting about this lady saying, like, you know what, honestly, like I love her, I do love her so much, but I don't know, she's kind of a problem, like, but it's captioned when you when you say you're gonna hand it over to the Lord, but here you go, stressing about it again, right? Yes, and so they're having that conversation of like, I don't know, like really, she's just like I love her, but she's kind of a problem. Like, she just won't let it go, like she won't just let us lead her. You know, like why can't she just rely on us? And um, anyways, I thought that was pretty humorous because I feel like that's that's me where I'm like, I'm gonna hand this over to the Lord. I'm gonna let I'm gonna let Jesus just take take control of this. And then when it's not happening quick enough or in the way that I think it should be, I'm like, well, you know what? Never mind, I'm just gonna take control of it. And yeah, you know, fast enough. Yeah, you're not doing it fast enough, or you're not doing it the way that I've you're not bending to my will versus bending to his will, you know. So, anyways, I thought that was pretty cute. Guilty of that too.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

Yeah, I'm gonna have to go watch your Instagram. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Well, it was in my story, so it's gone now, but um, but yeah, it was pretty funny.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Yeah, we're all guilty of that. I don't know one person that's that can actually hand it over to God and leave it there the first time.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

No, it's like so in our nature to want to just be in control and fix it ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

And yes, yeah. I remember years ago I was talking to my grandma, and I was like, you know, I I try to handle things first, and then if I can't, then I go to God because I don't want to bother him with the things that I can handle. And she looked at me and she said, Jen, that's pride. And I thought, no, it's not. I'm not thoughtful. I just don't, I just don't want to bother God with the things that I can handle.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

But I've I've learned that is so true, and and you're not the only person, I'm sure, who does that. I know I do that too, and I've never would have I never would have thought about that being pride, but you're so right.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Yeah, yeah. I was like, what's when we have pride? I'm not prideful.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

Yeah, because sometimes we we view prideful in one certain way, and so yeah, but yeah, I can understand that. But but I can understand how yeah, we don't want to bother him with things that we feel like, well, this is just a little thing, and I can yeah, you know, I can take care of this, and he doesn't want to be bothered. And he's like, please do, no, and God's like, please do, please bother me.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Like his ways are better than my ways. If I would just be better at going, okay, it's yours, like I don't want it back. I know you've heard all kinds of teachings that you know, either little rocks or it's like a brick, you know, you're carrying around all these bricks, and if you just hand them to God and you know, lay your backpack down, and it's like, okay, got it. And then I get into a stressful situation, and it's like all of the knowledge just goes away, and I just want to fight it and do it my way, and right, it never works out, like oh.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

No, it never does, and you end up making the situation worse. Yeah, it seems like, or I know in my case that it always ends up worse than what it was.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

I know I have learned to stop. I say I've learned it's it's a continual process, but to stop thinking about it and just turn on praise and worship music and just oh that's great. That's great advice. That's really great in the storm.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Yes, that is great advice because we can really. I know for me, I can make myself go crazy with all the thoughts. I can just reel, and and that's not good. Can make ourselves sick, like it manifests in physical ways. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I agree with that. And you know, we our sister-in-law, you know, I talked to her on Saturday, and something that she had said to me was like, you know what? The enemy has already stolen so much from you. Don't let him steal anymore. Not today. Not today, not tomorrow. And I was like, you're absolutely right, like to sit here and allow him to just let those things keep festering and and making it bigger than what it needs to be. It's like he's stealing my time and he's stealing my energy and he's stealing my joy. And yeah, and we let him health and health, yeah. And it's like, and we let him do it way too much. We do guilty. Yes, and like we gotta start telling him. I mean, we just have to start telling him, like, no. No, you're not gonna you're not gonna do this to me today. And like you said, turn on some praise and worship music.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Spiritual warfare is real. It is real. And people some people don't think that it is, but it is. I know, but it is. I it has been kind of one of my prayers here lately. I'm like, Lord, I want to see into the spiritual realm. I wanna see, I want to see what's going on. I I want to know how to fight it. I want to know what I'm up against. And I don't know if that's a dangerous prayer or a good prayer, but it's just for some strange reason, I just feel like if I had an understanding, it would give me the determination and the dedication to just keep on fighting.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

Yes, yeah. It's almost like instead of looking at these, what was it? I was oh, I was listening to a podcast earlier today, and it was about this Nigerian woman who got shot in the face because she wouldn't deny Jesus. And so she went, you know, went blind because it it got her in her eyes, I guess. Um, anyway, she had gone blind and instead of um you know being a victim or you know, falling into depression or whatever, she was like, I'm I'm gonna praise the Lord. I'm gonna praise the Lord. And um there was something else. Um, oh gosh, the thought just left me, but it's almost like when you're given something difficult. I think we've talked about this before briefly on a different episode, but like when we're given a challenge, instead of looking at it like, God, why me? Looking at it like, thank you, God, thank you for giving me this challenge because I know that I'm gonna get through it because you're gonna help me get through it and it's going to make me stronger. It's gonna teach me how to battle, it's gonna teach me how to be a warrior. And I never look at those things in that way. I never look at it as like God strengthening me for something else. And the truth is, is like the more you battle and the more practice you get in that, then the easier it's gonna be to start slaying all those tacks that come your way, all those arrows. It's like boom, boom, boom, boom, got you, like you're out of here, you know. And um, I've I want to start to look at those attacks in that way, but I know that's going to like require um a conscientious effort to do that.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

And then the scripture counted all as joy, all of you know, all of our struggles and battles. I mean, we it scripture says we're gonna face hard times, yeah. It doesn't say if it says when. Right. So we know we're gonna struggle. And if we just learned how to fight those battles by handing on to him and saying, God, you you've got this.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

And he's to remember that he's walking with us through all of these. Yeah. He's not like, okay, we'll see you on the other side.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Right? It's like, hey, he's like, here's your one weapon, and your weapon is the armor. Put on your armor every day. I gave you an instruction exactly what it is and what you need to put on. And it's like, go out there and battle. Like, think of yourself as Wonder Woman. You're just going out. There and you're gonna fight the good fight, you know?

SPEAKER_00 22:04

Definitely. Have you seen any of those um pictures where it has, you know, like a woman warrior wearing her armor and then has the scripture on the different yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Those are neat.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

Yeah, yes, it is. I think we need like a life-size one of those in our room.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Yeah, we do.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

We need a sword.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Need what? A sword. A sword. We need a sword. We can like I can remember as a kid watching She-Ra. I remember coming home from school, and I had a She-Ra coloring book, and I'd watch the cartoon, and I'd sit there and color, and I was just like, oh, I want to be She-Ra. I want to go out there and fight that, fight those battles, fight those bad guys, and you know, be victorious. And it's like I can be, I can be my own warrior. Warrior. Warrior for the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Yeah, he created you for that. Yep, yep. So each and every one of us, we just gotta remember it. We're strong. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

God's already won the war. Yeah, exactly. He's already won. So why are we stressing? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

Because all we can see is this. Because we're human. Yeah. Because we're human, that's why. But I know, like when I lost my mom, I thought I would, you know, because they keep everybody says, you know, God turns something good out of out of bad. And I just kept saying, God, I just like I want to see your bird's eye view. Like all I can focus on is right here and right now and being so sad. But if you will show me what you see, that'll give me comfort. And you know, he didn't do it immediately. He said, It's gonna take time. So I've had to be patient to see what what good comes of that.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Right, right. And then when it happens, you'll be like, okay. Yeah, get it now. Yeah, yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

Oh well, I think that's all I have. I think that's all that I have, too. Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Well, everybody put on your armor, yes, be strong in the Lord. That's right, and let Jesus lead you to green pastures and still waters, and yeah, find rest in. You will find rest. You will find rest. Amen to that. Yes, all right. Well, then we'll see you guys next week. Yeah, everybody have a good week. All right, love you, Melada. Love you, bye.