Green Pastures

Posted on June 11, 2010 by WomanAlive

My heart needed this today…I hope if you need some encouragement this will help you too.  May you find rest today in His green pastures.
from Max Lucado “Traveling Light, Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Intended to bear”
Green pastures were not the natural terrain of Judea.  The hills around Bethlehem where David kept his flock were not lush and green.  Even today they are white and parched.  Any green pasture in Judea is work of some shepherd.  He has cleared the rough, rocky land.  Stumps have been torn out, and brush has been burned. Irrigation.  Cultivation.  Such are the work of a shepherd.
Hence, when David says, “He makes me to lie down in green pastures,” he is saying, “My shepherd makes me lie down in his finished work.”  With his own pierced hand, Jesus created a pasture to the soul.  He tore out the thorny underbrush of condemnation.  He pried loose the huge boulders of sin.  In their place he planted seeds of grace and dug ponds of mercy.
And he invites us to rest there.  Can you imagine the satisfaction in the heart of the shepherd who, with work completed, he sees his sheep rest in the tender grass?
Can you imagine the satisfaction in the heart of God when we do the same?  His pasture is his gift to us.  This is not a pasture that you have made.  Nor is it a pasture that your deserve.  It is a gift of God.  “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this  not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph.2:8 NIV)
In a word rocky with human failure, there is a land lush with divine mercy.  Your Shepherd invites you there.  He wants you to lie down.  Nestle deeply until you are hidden, buried, in the tall shoots of his love, and there you will find rest.