Green Pastures & Blue Waters, Central Flint Hills, KS
Most of us understand which comfort foods can give us consolation in times of stress such as warm garlic mashed potatoes, chocolate anything, cool vanilla ice cream, etc. But many of these comfort foods can ultimately cause their own type of stress for our bodies. Fortunately, there’s also an abundance of zero calorie comfort words in the Bible that can provide an immeasurable amount of stress reduction in our lives and they’re actually good for our soul.
The opening lines of Psalm 23 written by King David are perhaps the ultimate classic comfort Word. David’s youth as a shepherd helped to verbalize the meditative image of our Creator leading us through a beautiful pastoral scene beside quiet waters and green pastures. We know that the shepherd used his staff to protect his flock from harm’s way and that image also gives us comfort. David’s inspired words assure us that if we follow in the true path of our good shepherd, goodness and love will be with us and we will dwell with Him forever after fearlessly walking through the darkest valley. We’re promised that His Light will brighten our path to help us walk without stumbling along the way.
In Philippians 4 the apostle Paul assures us that we should not be anxious about anything. If we present our requests to God, He will give us peace. Paul reminds us that Emanuel is always with us, He is in control of the overall destiny of this world, and our own ultimate destiny has been secured to provide us with the ultimate joy in life. There are many times in life where circumstances are beyond our control, with the exception on one thing--our response to them. Paul reminds us that this one thing can be to turn our concern over to our Creator and trust in Him to be with us as we walk through the unknown dark valley, one day at a time, until we emerge out into the soft white Light of still green pastures and quiet blue waters.
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