Wed., 4/15/15 Devotion (Ps. 23:4a)

Today's encouragement comes from the very familiar words of Psalm 23:4a, where David wrote this:

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me."

Have you ever wakened in the night, with fears that awful things would hap-pen to you, and/or those you love? Have you ever had moments of severe doubt, about the goodness, power, or maybe even the very existence of God? If any of these things have been your lot, then you know at least something about the "shadow of death."

But what is our comfort in these times? Is it not the abiding knowledge that God really *is* there, that He is "with" us, His beloved church? The longer we walk with Jesus, the more intense will be these "shadow" times; but the pro-mises that He is really very near will be the more sure and sweet. The Lord will never forsake His children.

[Puritan quote of the day: "When he that is born of God shall come and say, 'Father, I hunger, give me Christ; Father, I thirst, refresh me with the living streams of Thy Spirit,' can God deny?” —Thomas Watson, in, "The Beati-tudes"]