"The Lord is my Shepherd"

Recently, the Lord has been teaching me a very important lesson and has actually given me a "visual" to help me remember the lesson.

Frequently I find myself awake from about 2:30am - 4 or 5 am.  During this time my thoughts tend to spiral out of control.  One particular night I was very worried and preoccupied with all the concerns of my life and those of my family.  I was thinking about all the "what ifs...."  As time marched on, I was reminded of the passage in John 10:1-18 where Jesus talks about how he is the Good Shepherd.  Something triggered my memory about a sermon on this passage, where the Pastor talked about when Shepherds would guard their flocks at night they would find a place for the sheep to rest which was protected and then the Shepherd themselves would lay across the opening and act as the gate, protecting the sheep from predators.

That was the "visual" I believe the Lord gave to me, that He desires to be my Shepherd and as long as I am in the pen He is able to protect me, but whenever I jump out of the pen I open myself up to harm.

So now when I have my two hour "sessions" in the middle of the night this is what my thought process looks like.  When I am "in" the pen, I am praying, quoting scripture, singing hymns or praise songs.  However, just as quick my thoughts will spiral straight to worry, the oughta, gotta, shoulda's of life and I will realize I have jumped "out" of the pen.  So back and forth I go in and out of the pen. God, in His generosity has given me the choice to be either place, but He desires for me to be in the pen where only He can protect me and care for me.  This is a process as I learn to spend more time "in" the pen rather than "out".

"The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep."  John 10:2