| J.R. Miller D.D. | Page 8 |
A young Christian who had been for many weeks in a hospital, undergoing a painful operation and then slowly recovering, wrote me in the days of her convalescence, “I have found my little white bed here in the hospital a bit of God’s green pasture.” Not only had it proved a place of rest and peace to her, but also a place of spiritual refreshment.
“He restoreth my soul.” In several ways does the shepherd restore his sheep. If one wanders away, he goes out after it, and seeks it till he finds it, restoring it to the shelter of the fold. If one faints and grows sick by the way, in the hard journey or the burning heat, the shepherd does not leave it to die, but takes it up in his arms, and carries it home, restoring it to the fold. If a sheep is hurt, torn by a wild beast or injured by accident, the shepherd tends its wounds until they are healed.
All this suggests how our Good Shepherd restores our souls. Sometimes we wander away. It is very easy to drift off from Christ. The drifting is often unconscious – we do not know that we are losing our first love, our interest in prayer, our conscientiousness in obedience and service, and by and by we are far off. Sometimes it is a cherished sin which eats out our heart-life. Sometimes it is a worldly companionship that draws us away, loosening the bonds which bound us to Christ. Sometimes it is an absorbing business which leaves no room for God. Or it may be the cares of this world which choke the word and quench the Spirit. We need often to have our soul restored, quickened, revived, or we should never get safe home through this evil world.
Then, what soul is not sometimes hurt, wounded, torn, – perhaps by sorrow, perhaps by the wild beasts of temptation? We all know how the Good Shepherd restores the hurt life. He is a most skilful physician. He binds up the broken spirit. Sin’s wounds he heals. We remember how David’s own soul was restored after he had fallen. The terrible hurts were so healed that he was a better man afterward than he had been before. Sin is a fearful thing. It wounds the soul, and no hand but Christ’s can restore it. But if we put our hurt life into his hand, he will give healing. What millions of sin’s woundings our Good Shepherd has cured!
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