I’m Here to Shepherd You

Over the past few months, I have had a stirring sense that the Lord wants to shepherd His daughters.

It’s been a consistent theme in my own life personally, but now as I speak to many others, I see how He’s echoing this over His daughters, particularly those running on the front lines. Fighting for their families, warring over their home and ministering in the ripe fields. He’s calling them into a place of safety and rest. He’s gently speaking over the mothers, ‘Come away and let me be your Shepherd.’

Mothers, there is so much fighting for our attention and our affection. The world is noisy, and everything can feel so urgent, hurried and hard. The swirl comes to confuse and bring us into a place of chaos, but the Shepherd comes to bring clarity and calm.

I don’t know if you’ve ever felt like this but it’s almost as if the weight of the noise around me could overcome me some days. Am I doing enough? Am I doing too much? The chatter can feel amplified. The voice of the accuser can feel as though it is intensifying, but it is in this place the Lord calls us away — out from the noise.

The strategy of the enemy is to overwhelm and exhaust us so much that we forget we have the wellspring of life within us. We hear the Lord calling us to a deeper place of abiding.

I have felt the Lord say that He wants to shepherd me. He wants to shepherd you.

Being led by the Good Shepherd is the antithesis to the surmounting pressures around about you.

Being led by the Good Shepherd is rest for a weary, worn-out, burnt-out soul.

In Matthew 11:28, I see an invitation from Jesus that to me points to Him as shepherd. I have always loved this scripture in the Message Translation:

‘Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.’

Is this not the respite for a weary mother? The refreshing for your soul? To take us back to the rhythm of grace and away from the chaos and clutter.

The invitation to come away was offered by Jesus Himself, and while it came years before our time, it’s a promise that remains. It is a promise that is manna for us daily. It doesn’t get old. It doesn’t lose meaning. It doesn’t run out.

And perhaps there is no greater example of what being led by a shepherd looks like than in Psalm 23. It’s a psalm that many know, but I believe that this is a time where we will live and abide in the quiet streams it speaks of, and under the care of our beautiful Shepherd.

Last year felt like a pressure cooker for me in many ways, and burn out was very real. He took me to Psalm 23. Psalm 23 (particularly The Passion Translation) has been a safe space for me. It was the burning I needed to heal the burn out.

The Hebrew word for ‘shepherd’ is ra’ah, which has a double meaning: it means both best friend and shepherd. The shepherd was not just a watcher of the sheep, he was a comforting companion to them and so is the Lord to you. In the depths of loneliness, you may face in motherhood, He is there as your best friend. On the couch with a cuppa. Leaning in to listen to your heart cry. He has more than enough for you. He is not lacking.

I am reminded in this psalm that He is also Jehovah Shalom, my God, my peace. If you will take up the invitation to come away, He has a place for you by the brook of bliss. In some ways I love the older versions of this verse: He makes me lie down. It’s almost like an act of the Shepherd’s chastening to make us lie down.

He knows when you need to stop.

When pause is paramount, He makes you lie down.

And it’s in that place of causing you to lie down, your soul is revived, refreshed, restored. But if we never lie down, how can we expect refreshing? His chastening, His rod brings comfort to us. It protects and covers and guards our life from evil. So much so, that even in the dark pit we do not fear, but we are nourished in the presence of the worst enemy.

Ask the Lord today to show you what it is to have Him as Shepherd. That He would smuggle you away into His secret place, if that’s what it takes. Because just a moment with Him can refresh the weariest of souls.

Psalm 23 TPT
Yahweh is my best friend and my shepherd, I always have more than enough.
He offers a resting place for me in His luxurious love.
His tracks take me to an oasis of peace near the quiet brook of bliss. That’s where He restores and revives my life.
He opens before me the right path and leads me along in His footsteps of righteousness.
Even when your path takes me through the valley of deepest darkness, fear will never conquer me, four you already have!
Your authority is my strength and my peace.
The comfort of your love takes away my fear. I’ll never be lonely, for you are near.
You become my delicious feast even when my enemies dare to fight.
You anoint me with the fragrance of your Holy Spirit; you give me all I can drink of you until my cup overflows.
So why would I fear the future? Only goodness and tender love pursue me all the days of my life.
Then afterward, when my life is through, I’ll return to your glorious presence to be forever with you.