Page 26 The Lord leads His children as a Shepherd, a King, and a Father. As a Shepherd, He leads us into green pastures and out of danger. But He allows great freedom of choice within the green pastures. As a King, He gives His people spiritual principles by which to govern their lives. But these principles are very broad and allow for much freedom of choice. As a Father, He provides lots of instruction to His children when they are young. But then He expects them to mature. And part of maturity is the ability to make decisions that are in harmony with God’s mind and heart. The Crucial Need for Understanding Psalm 32:8-9 underscores the point I’m trying to make. The Lord says through the Psalmist, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with my eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you. (NKJV) The horse and the mule have no understanding. They have no discernment. They have no judgment. Because they have no understanding, they must be pulled with the bit and the bridal, left and right, and told where to go in every circumstance. The Lord tells
I used to think that God’s gifts were on shelves one above the other; and that the taller we grew in Christian character the easier we could reach them. I now find that God’s gifts are on shelves one beneath the other; and it is not a question of growing taller but of stooping lower; and that we have to go down, always down, to get His best gifts.
F.B. Meyer