The Good Shepherd: Devotions Inspired by Psalm 23Sample

The Master Restorer 

By Elizabeth Settle 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 

A friend of mine restores cars—the kind of cars that really catch your eye while driving down the highway. Red leather seats, perfectly polished chrome, white-walled tires—each car is a testament to its owner’s loving care. Before they were road-ready, those cars were jacked up in a garage and stripped down to the chassis to be rewired, reworked, and reassembled to their original design. 

Have you ever felt like that—undone and stripped to the chassis with your life in pieces? Perhaps you’ve been towed into a spiritual garage to be rewired, reworked, and reassembled by God, the Master Restorer. He made you, He leads you, and He knows exactly how to restore you to your original state—to whom you were created to be. Psalm 23:3 specifically declares God to be the Shepherd who restores our soul: our mind, will, and emotions. 

Psalm 23 doesn’t gloss over or avoid the truth that life is hard. We walk through darkness; we experience evil; we are surrounded by enemies. Our souls are misshapen and exhausted by these experiences, making us road weary. Influenced by sin and our finite understanding, we come to incomplete conclusions about God, ourselves, and others. We need restoration. 

If you need God to restore your soul today, allow Him to:    

• Renew your mind, giving you the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).    
• Rework your will, inviting you into His will and kingdom (Matthew 6:10).    
• Reassemble your emotions, influencing your desires and drawing you into praise and gratitude (Psalm 37:4). 

God knows how you were created to function, and He empathizes with the weariness and dysfunction you face. Our Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, has come to lead you and restore you to your original design. Once He restores your soul in the garage, it’s His pleasure to fire you up, take you out for a drive on the highway, and let people stare. You’re a testament to your owner’s loving care. 

PRAYER 

Lord, we need You to restore us. Restoration rings of hope, but it’s preceded by surrender. Help us relax in Your hands and patiently wait on You even when we’re jacked up in Your garage. Give us the mind of Christ. We surrender to Your will as citizens of Your kingdom. We surrender to Your desires, grateful that You deposit goodness in our hearts. Lord, thank You for being our Master Restorer. In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

FOR FURTHER REFLECTION   

• Invite the Holy Spirit to show you the ways in which your soul is weary. Write them down as an act of surrender to both the reality of those hard things and the reality of His tender care. Listen for His response to your confession.   
• Ask the Lord to give you His perspective on a challenge you are facing: Lord, where are You in this situation? What do You have to say about it? What would You like to show me about Yourself, myself, or others through this?

Holy Spirit, what are You saying to me today?

MEMORY VERSES

He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Psalm 23:2–3