Are you having fun this summer vacation? Enjoying some time to rest, relax, and get a break from the stress of school? Let’s take a look at today’s verse.

He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters – Psalm 23:2 (NIV)

Doesn’t that sound great? God wants to help us rest and relax. He wants to give us peace in the storm.

It can feel sometimes like God is asking us to give up a lot to live for Him. But the reason He asks us to not live like the world is that He can give us peace unlike the world can. When we follow Him, He helps us lie down in green pastures. He helps us experience peace when it doesn’t make sense that we should have peace.

Following after God sometimes can seem like it’s not paying off. However, it always does. Following God brings you peace and quiet that you can’t get anywhere else. So today be encouraged. God wants to give you peace, bring you into good things, it’s just up to you to follow after Him. Get to know Him and you’ll experience peace a deeper way.

Have you ever wished that you could walk into a store and buy literally everything you wanted? I have had those thoughts quite a few times. I’ve wished that someone really wealthy would come along and buy me every single thing I wanted.

Even though it would be nice to have everything I could want, I know deep down that it wouldn’t fulfill me. I know that desiring material things isn’t all life is about, but it sure is fun to dream, isn’t it?

Let’s check out today’s verse.

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. – Psalm 23:1

When you read this verse, you might think, well, there you go, I can get everything I desire. But I don’t think that’s what this Psalm is saying. I think it’s telling us several things.

First, it describes God as our shepherd. I don’t have shepherds where I live, so it’s kind of hard for me to imagine what a shepherd does. But from what I understand, they take care of the sheep. They make sure the sheep are safe, have enough to eat, drink, and protection from danger. What an awesome picture of what God can do for us. He wants to keep us safe, and provide for us the basic things we need.

Secondly, it says we lack nothing. That doesn’t mean that you have all the toys you want, or all the shoes you could ever dream of, or the best video games. Instead, it probably means more like in God, we have the fulfillment we need. Instead of looking to things to fulfill us, we can look to God. When we make knowing God our goal in life, we find that we have all the happiness and fulfillment we need.

So today, if you’ve looked to things or even people to satisfy you, know this. God is the only one who can help you lack nothing. Knowing Him fills you in a way stuff and people never can. Look to Him, and get to know Him, and you’ll find that you really do lack nothing.

A friend of mine was walking through a store the other day, and the store’s worker came up and handed them some money. The worker said that another customer saw them in the store and wanted to give them some money and asked the worker to hand it to them.

Talk about being in the right place at the right time to get something good!

Wouldn’t you love it if someone just came up to you and handed you some money? I know I’d be pretty excited if it happened to me. Today’s verse talks about Jesus coming at just the right time, let’s read it.

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. – Romans 5:6 (NLT)

Now Jesus didn’t come and show up in a store and hand us some money. Maybe you wish He did. He doesn’t do that. However, He did come at exactly the right time. Just when the world needed it most, Jesus came. And He died and rose again in our place. That’s the good news of the gospel.

We deserved hell, but got heaven. And Jesus provided our solution. He came into time and died for us when we were sinners. We couldn’t do anything to earn heaven. But we didn’t have to. Jesus did it for us, in our place. Just like my friend didn’t do a thing to deserve or earn the money someone gave him in the store, we didn’t deserve Jesus. And yet, God loved us so much that He gave us what we didn’t deserve, eternal life with Him in heaven.

One of my chores at home as a teenager was doing the laundry. I had to take the clothes out of their baskets, put them into the washing machine, add the soap, and turn it on. To get the soap out of the bottle it came in, I had to take off the lid, and pour it out onto the clothes.

That’s a little like what today’s Bible verse talks about.

 This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. – Romans 5:5

To get the soap out of the bottle and into the laundry to do it’s cleaning work, I had to open the bottle and pour out the soap. If I didn’t, then the clothes wouldn’t get clean. That’s very similar to God’s love. God had to take the love He has and pour it into our hearts.

This is good news for us as Christians. That means that we don’t have to find love, or drum up love for other people. We can take the love that God gave us, and use it instead.

So in those moments when you face people that are hard to love. In those times when you wonder how you’ll go on or how you’ll love the unlovable people in your life, know that you don’t have to do it. God gave you what you need to love others. You just have to realize the love is there and use it to love others. It’s kind of like how the washer stirs the soap up to get the clothes clean. You’ve got to draw on and stir up the love God has placed in your heart. As you do, you’ll see good results loving others.

Yesterday, we talked a little about how easy it is to want to shift the blame onto someone else or something else when we do wrong and get caught. However, the right thing to do is to admit your wrong and accept forgiveness from God. 

It can be really difficult sometimes to accept God’s forgiveness, however. We can often feel like we need to do something more. The guilt we feel can drive us to distance ourselves from God and from His love. But here’s the thing about God, no matter how bad you mess up, He still loves you.

What an amazing truth. God loves you, regardless of how bad you mess up. His plans for you are still good. Check out what He did for Adam, who messed up really big.

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. – Genesis 3:21 (NIV)

Adam felt naked because of His skin. Now God could have said, I told you so, Adam. I told you not to eat of the fruit from that tree. See, it really made you feel weird and bad, didn’t it? God could have rubbed it in Adam’s face and left Him cold and naked.

But what did God do instead? He clothed Adam and Eve. He didn’t leave them alone when they messed up. He still loved them and helped them.

The same is true for you. Yes, you mess up. Maybe it feels like you’re always messing up. But here’s the truth: there’s no mess up too big for God’s love and forgiveness. So when you mess up, even if it’s for the 97th time, go to God. Get His help and forgiveness.

God is always willing and ready to help you with whatever it is that you need.

I remember a time when I got into trouble. I had written some really bad things on a note about another kid. My teacher found it and asked who had written the note. I obviously didn’t want to get in trouble, so I didn’t admit that I had written it.

Unfortunately, I was one of the best spellers in the class, and I had spelled several really difficult words correctly in the note. My teacher asked me if I had written it, and I finally admitted that I did.

I’m sure you’re like me, and have done something that wasn’t right before. What happens when that sin is brought to light? Do you admit that you did wrong? Or do you try to hide it or blame someone else? If you choose hiding and blaming someone else, then you’re just like Adam and Eve. When they sinned, they began shifting the blame elsewhere.

The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” – Genesis 3:12 (NIV)

Shifting the blame is what we all like to do when we get caught doing something that isn’t right. We come up with some excuse or reason why we didn’t do the right thing, and do whatever it takes to avoid admitting wrong.

And while that’s the easy and natural thing to do, it doesn’t make it the right thing to do. Instead of shifting blame, we should own up to our mistakes, take them to Jesus get forgiveness and then make any restoration that might be necessary.

And doing that isn’t easy. It takes guts and humility. It isn’t easy to look bad in front of someone else. We’d rather save face. But admitting wrong is the right thing to do when you’ve done something wrong. So today, challenge yourself. Don’t just shift the blame, but admit your wrongs, look to Jesus for forgiveness and choose to do better next time.