LORD, I WANT TO KNOW YOU – LECTURE 14
“Jehovah-raah, The Lord My Shepherd”
Kay Arthur, Teacher
O precious lamb of God, because His name is Jehovah-raah, you shall not want, because the Lord is
your shepherd. That is the name of God we are going to look at today. I pray that it is going to be a very,
very precious time to you.
Psalm 23:1 is the psalm we think of when we think of the Lord being our shepherd. I would like to
take a few minutes and read that psalm all the way through. (1) “The LORD if my shepherd, I shall not want.
(2) He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. (3) He restores my soul; He
guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. (4) Even though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me. (5) Thou
doest prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; Thou hast anointed my head with oil; My cup
overflows. (6) Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in
the house of the LORD forever.”
Many people read this psalm at funerals, but yet I believe that it is not just a psalm to be read at
funerals. I believe it is a psalm for life. Of all the names of God, everything that we have learned about God
this far, are culminated in this relationship between a sheep and his shepherd. In Psalm 23 we see the
connotation in this name, Jehovah-raah, of total care, total guidance, and total provision, so that you, little
sheep, shall not want.
In this name I think we find a tenderness and a security that implies a relationship, that comes from a
relationship. When we see this name, we see Jehovah-jireh, which means “the LORD will provide;” we see
El Elyon, the God most high;” we see Yahweh, which is the name “Jehovah,” the self-existent One. We have
seen all these other names, and yet, with this name Jehovah-raah, it implies, like none of the other names
imply, not demeaning them, but it implies a relationship, because here it is, “The LORD is my shepherd.”
The concept of God as a shepherd to His people is not unique with this psalm. It was used back in
Genesis 48:15, and you will see the concept of Jacob’s relationship to God as a shepherd. Jacob is speaking,
(15) “And he blessed Joseph,” [Jacob is dying, his name has been changed to Israel, and he blessed Joseph.]
“and said, ‘The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my
shepherd…’” [I think that is significant. “The Lord is my shepherd;” not “The Lord is our shepherd.” It is a
personal relationship.] “‘the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, (16) the angel who has
redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and may my name live on in them.” [So you see this concept clear
back in Genesis with Jacob and God.]
You see it again in 49:24, as he blesses Joseph. (24) “But his bow remained firm, and his arms were
agile, from the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),” [There is
the shepherd, and the shepherd is God Almighty, God the Father, and God the Son, your personal shepherd.
And because He is your personal shepherd, there is total care, there is total provision, and there is total
guidance in your relationship with Him.]
I want to run several verses with you, just to show you this relationship throughout. It doesn’t belong
just to David who was a shepherd boy. You see it again in Psalm 78:52. “But He led forth His own people
like sheep (talking about God leading them out of the land of Egypt), and guided them in the wilderness like
a flock; (53) And He led them safely, so that they did not fear; but the sea engulfed their enemies.”
[Remember, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; and
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” So here is total care, total
provision, and total guidance.]
Look at Isaiah 40:11. “Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs,
and carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.” [You see this tenderness; you see this
relationship of the sheep to the shepherd. This is what God wants to convey to us through His name. He is
your personal shepherd.]
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I don’t know if you have seen the picture of Jesus holding a lamb. He has that little lamb’s face right
up next to His, and it is so full of tenderness, and love, and care. Many times a shepherd will take his sheep,
and he will pick up the sheep, and he will put it in the fold of his shepherd’s garment. It is girded around the
waist, so there is a big pocket up there. He puts that sheep right inside the pocket of his garment, and as he
walks, he will fuss with its wool or twiddle with its ears, and talk to it, and pet it, and caress it. Many times
when a shepherd that has a sheep that keeps going astray, he will, to save that sheep’s life. Sheep are so
dumb that they will eat themselves right off a cliff, literally, right off a cliff. They are so oblivious, so to
speak, to danger, or so dumb about danger that they will just walk right into danger, and they will walk away
from the shepherd. They don’t realize that the only place of security is close to the shepherd where he can
care for them, where he can provide for them. Sometimes, when they keep wandering off that way, he takes
the sheep, and he breaks its leg. Then he binds that leg up, and then he takes the sheep, and sticks him back
in his garment. He carries that sheep, and he watches over that sheep. He puts that sheep close to him, and
he talks to him, so that when the sheep’s leg is well and he can take off the splint and let him go, that sheep
has become so used to the tenderness of the shepherd, and the closeness of the shepherd, and the feel of the
warmth of his body, and of his protection, that he does not wander anymore. He stays right at the shepherd’s
side.
I remember when we first started our ministry, and we were down in Mexico. We had a young man
that said that he knew the Lord and everything, but he just kept walking away from the Lord. I was teaching
about this, and one day he walked back in the house, and he had a cast on his leg. I said, “What happened to
you?” He looked at me, and said, “The shepherd broke my led.” Isaiah 40:11, “Like a shepherd He will tend
His flock, in His arms He will gather the lambs, and carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the
nursing ewes.” [You see the tenderness between the sheep and the shepherd.]
You have looked at Ezekiel 34 in your homework, but I want to look at it one more time, and pick up
verses 15 and 16, just to show you this care, this provision, so that when you are wanting, you will remember
not to go off from your Shepherd, but to come back to your Shepherd, because He is the one that keeps you
from wanting. (15) “‘I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest,’ declared the LORD God. (16) I will
seek the lost, bring back the scattered,” [When sheep get frightened, they will run in all different directions.
The thing that keeps from running is for the shepherd to walk among them, and for them to feel His
presence. Then they won’t scatter.] “‘bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick;’” [Because He is their
shepherd.]
Psalm 95:6 is the last verse we will look at, but I wanted you to see these throughout the Scriptures.
They are really precious, I think, and show this relationship of ours to God as our Shepherd. (6) “Come, let
us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. (7) For He is our God, and we are the
people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.” [We belong to Him; He is our Shepherd, and because He
is our Shepherd, we shall not want. Remember, once again, I think that this name of God shows a closer
relationship to God in all that He is than all the other names that we have seen Him.]
This relationship (and I want you to remember this) with Jehovah-raah, with your Shepherd, is a
relationship that is initiated by Him. It is not initiated by you. This is what is so precious. It is initiated by
Him. It is a relationship that is also sustained by Him. The strength of your relationship does not depend on
you. It depends on the Shepherd, because He is the one that has sought you out. This makes it very, very
personal. Some of us say, “But there is no way. I could never have that relationship with the Lord.” We are
going to see that—Yes, you can, because He is seeking His sheep.
I want to take you to John 10, and catch the first fifteen verses that this figure of speech that Jesus
uses in John 10. (1) “‘Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep,
but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. (2) But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of
the sheep.’” [He is saying, “Look, the only way that you can get into God’s sheepfold is through Me.” Jesus
is the shepherd of the sheep, but He is also the door into the sheepfold.] (3) “‘To him the doorkeeper opens,
and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep (underline it) by name,’” [God does not look at you,
precious one, collectively. He doesn’t just look at the group here. He knows each of you individually, and
He wants to stress that individual relationship so much that Psalm 23 says, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
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not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters.” It is not our; it
is not mine. It is, “The Lord is my shepherd.” It is such a personal relationship that, like a normal shepherd
of those times knew his sheep by name, so God knows you by name. He tells you that the hairs of your head
are numbered, and He knows how many come out in the comb or brush every morning.
The other day I was sitting on my porch and having my quiet time, and a bird came up. I thought
about scaring him away, because they mess all over my white porch rail, and they eat berries, and it stains it.
I thought, “I will scare him away,” and then I looked at that little bird, and I thought, “God knows that bird
exists. He knows when a sparrow falls to the ground.” That is His care over creation. Well, Jehovah-raah,
He is my shepherd. He knows me; I am so very special to Him that He knows me by name. He knows all
about me. I think it is so important that you catch the personal relationship of this name, and the care of this
name. They say that shepherds will name their sheep different names, and that they will go and call their
sheep, either collectively or individually, and that sheep will follow them, because they know the voice of
the shepherd. But, if another person would use that name that he uses for the sheep, either collectively or
individually, and call the sheep, the sheep would not follow them, because they know the voice of their
shepherd.
Now watch this personal, intimate relationship. (4) “When he puts forth all his own, he goes before
them,” [I love that! Not behind them, but he goes before them, which implies protection. I had much rather
have Christ out in front of me than behind me. I want Him out in front of me.] “and the sheep follow him
because they know his voice. (5) And a stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because
they do not know the voice of strangers. (6) This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not
understand what He had been saying to them. (7) Jesus therefore said to them again, ‘Truly, truly, I say to
you, I am the door of the sheep. (8) All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not
hear them. (9) I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find
pasture.”
Let me explain this. Many times in the East, when a shepherd would bring his sheep into town, there
was sheepfold, and that sheepfold was usually in the corner of a building. It was just sticks or thatching put
up there, and it had one door. A shepherd would bring his sheep, and put his flock in there. Another
shepherd would bring his sheep, and they could mix all those sheep up. The reason they could mix all those
sheep up was because, when the shepherd came to get his sheep, he would know his sheep simply by calling
them, and the fact that his sheep would follow him. This is how intimate their relationship was. If anyone (a
thief or a robber wanted to steal the sheep, they would have to ( ? ), and then he would jump down over the
wall, grab the sheep, and slit their throats. It says, “As a lamb before the shearers is dumb…” You can slit
the throat of a lamb, and it will not make any noise. So they would slit the throat of that lamb or that sheep,
and then they would throw that sheep out to another thief or a robber. In other words, the shepherd is the one
that cares for the sheep, not the thief, and not the robber. And yet, a lot of us listen to the thief, a lot of us
listen to the robber, instead of listening to the shepherd, because we do not realize how much the shepherd
the loves us. The thief comes to kill; he comes to destroy; and that thief and robber is personified in Satan.
He comes to kill and destroy; Jesus comes that we might have life.
It says that he is the door to the sheep. One time in the East, they saw a sheepfold, and they saw an
open door. (There was no door; it was just an open way.) They said to the shepherd, “Where is the door to
keep your sheep in at night, or to keep somebody from coming in to get your sheep?” He looked at him, and
said, “I am the door. At night I lay down in the opening, and if any of my sheep go out, they go out over me.
If anything comes in, they have to come in over me.” That is His relationship. He is the one that protects us,
guides us, and cares for us. (9) “I am the door, if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go
in and out and find pasture. (10) The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might
have life, and might have it abundantly. (11) I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life
for the sheep. (12) He who is a hireling, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, beholds the
wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees, and the wolf snatches them, and scatters them. (13) He flees
because he is a hireling, and is not concerned about the sheep. (14) I am the good shepherd, and I know My
own, and My own know Me.”
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What does a shepherd do? He is the one that goes out looking for his sheep. He might say, “Here,
sheepy, sheepy, sheepy!” Then the sheep comes, hearing his voice, and responding to Him. This little toy
that I have belongs to one of our staff, Charlene. One of our people knows that Charlene loves sheep, so
they found this sheep, and brought it to Charlene. When I saw it, I wanted one too, so badly. I just love it,
because that is exactly the way it is. He calls His sheep, and His sheep respond, because they know the voice
of the shepherd. There is that intimacy of relationship between the sheep and the shepherd, so much so, that
if you would go to Luke 15, you would see that sheep are so precious to the shepherd, that, if a sheep is lost,
he is going to leave the ninety and nine, and go find them. I know that you know that hymn, and it is so
wonderful.
Luke 15:1, “Now all the tax-gatherers and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. (2)
And both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with
them.’ (3) And He told them this parable, saying, (4) ‘What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and
has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture, and go after the one which is lost,
until he finds it? (5) And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.”
Maybe some of you who are listening to these messages are lost, and maybe you have not yet heard
the voice of the Shepherd, and maybe God is using this series to call you and tell you, “You are precious.”
You say, “No, I am not. I am a sinner; I am a mess.” Listen, God is looking for you, and He is calling, and
if any one of His sheep is lost, He is going to go after them, and He is going to call them, and call them, and
call them. Then, when He finds them, He is going to put them on His shoulders, and He is going to come
back rejoicing. This is the relationship of the shepherd to the sheep.
In John 15:16, He says, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I ordained you, that you should
go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask in My name, you shall receive it.”
[Why? Because the Lord is your shepherd, and you shall not want. He takes care of all your wants.]
Let’s go back to Psalm 23, and let’s look at this relationship between the sheep and the shepherd. I
am going to just hit and highlight parts of it, because we do not have time to go into depth. (1) “The LORD is
my shepherd, I shall not want. (2) He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet
waters.” [It says “still” waters in the King James Version; it says “quiet” waters in the New American
Standard. Literally, in the Hebrew, it is “He leads me beside waters of rest.”]
Verse 2 is telling you that once you know who your shepherd is, once you come to your shepherd,
once you are found by the shepherd and brought into the sheepfold, there is security. You go in and out, you
find pasture, you find rest for your souls. Once that happens, you enter into a life of rest. When he says, “He
makes me lie down in green pastures,” he is not saying that these pastures are going to feed me. He is saying
that because that shepherd has taken such good care of that sheep, there is total rest for that sheep. That
sheep is able to lie down. You have studied it, and you saw that sheep will not lie down unless they are free,
basically, from four things: (1) They have to be free from friction. If things are amiss among the flock, they
cannot lie down. (2) They have to free from pests. (2) They have to be free from fear. (3) They have to be
free from hunger and thirst. He is saying that because the LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want; and
because I do not want, I have a life of rest, total rest. I am able to lie down.
People used to say to me, “The Lord is your shepherd, and if you don’t slow down, He is going to
make you rest.” I thought, “He is just going to take me, and turn me right on my side.” He is just going to
pull my legs outside of me, and I will just be lying there and I will be bleating—just miserable, because He
has pulled my legs out, and He is going to make me lie down.” No, he is saying this, “Everything that you
ever need, little sheep, the shepherd will take care of.” There is complete and absolute rest in Him. It is
what the Bible calls “the rest of faith.” It is the rest of trusting Him; it is the rest of walking in belief.
Synonymous to walking in belief is to walk in obedience. That is what He is talking about here. “He makes
me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside side waters (or waters of rest).
Sheep are frightened by water, if it is rapid, washing water, because when you take all that wool on
that little sheep’s body, and you get it saturated with water, it can be in trouble. It can just sink, or it can
loose its footing as they go across a rapid stream. He is saying, “He leads me beside still water,” not
stagnant waters, but still waters. Sheep need water in order to survive. They normally get their water from
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the dew on the grass in the morning, but remember, “He leads me…, He makes me to lie down in green
pastures.” They get their thirst satisfied that way, but they also get their thirst satisfied by, when they get to
freshly running water that the shepherd has lead them to, then they can drink fully. Then they can be
sustained, as long as it not terribly hot weather, by the dew on the grass in the morning. I just think about
water, and how essential it is to life. As a matter of fact, when you think about Psalm 1:3, he says, “And he
will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,” and by rivers of living water. Water is essential to
life.
In this relationship between the sheep and the shepherd, and there being no want, and there being
total provision, where does your water for life come from? Turn to John 7:37. It is the day of the feast, that
great day. They celebrated that feast for seven days, and Jesus is standing there. (37) “…, Jesus stood and
cried out, saying, ‘If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.” [Are you thirsty? Where are you
going to have your thirst satisfied? I will never forget reading about the woman at the well, in John 4, and
how she drank and drank at all these different wells, you know, all those different men. Jesus said, “He that
believes on Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” He said, “I will give you water that will
lead to eternal life.” Our thirst is satisfied in Him.]
John 7:38, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers
of living water.’ (39) But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive;”
[That which gives you rest is found in Jesus Christ. He takes care of your hunger; He takes care of your
thirst; He is going to supply all that you want, because His name is Jehovah-raah. You are precious to Him,
because you are the sheep of His pasture.]
Psalm 23:3, “He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”
[When it says, “He restores my soul,” this possibly could be referring to the fact that many times sheep will
become cast. Sheep can get themselves in a difficult position for various reasons. Sometime sheep will lie
down on the ground, and as they scratch themselves, it their fur is clogged with mud and stuff like that, they
have a hard time getting back up. Or sometimes, when they lay down to scratch themselves, they fall over,
smack! on their back. He get in a hollow, and they can’t get up. When they can’t get up, they are absolutely
panicked, so they begin to flail their legs. As they flail their legs, the gas builds up inside the sheep, and his
legs become paralyzed because of all this panic, and the sheep is called “a cast sheep.” He is flat on his
back.
I want to tell you something—that can happen to any sheep at all, if he is not careful, and if he does
not stay close to the shepherd. When a shepherd finds a sheep missing, the fear in his heart is that that sheep
is cast on his back, and it cannot get out. I believe when he says, “He restores my soul,’ remember, that
shepherd is giving us everything we need so we do not want. The soul is the inward part of man; it is the
mind; it is the emotions. Sometimes the sheep get cast down because of what is going on in the inner man.
They will get into depression from the past, and they will find themselves totally unable to take themselves,
and the shepherd will go looking for that cast sheep. People have referred to it as “the dark night of the
soul.” David Brainard went through it; other people have gone through it. I didn’t know that Charles
Haddon Spurgeon had times when he, because of his illness, went into depression. When that happens, you
need to run to Jehovah-raah. You need to cry out to Jehovah-raah, so that your shepherd will come to your
rescue and restore your soul.
(3) “He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” [Sheep,
because of the nature of the beast will walk in the same rut over and over and over again. They will just stay
in a rut. As they stay in the rut, they make the ground deeper and deeper and deeper, and many times, in that
rut, they will walk in their own excrement, and they will get infected, etc. The shepherd leads the sheep in
paths of righteousness.] In your relationship with your Jehovah-raah, you need to come to Him, and you
need to say, “O my Shepherd, I thank You that You will lead me in paths of righteousness for Your name’s
sake.” You need to stick close to the side of the Shepherd, and you need to follow Him.
When He leads you in paths of righteousness, many times He will take you through the valley of the
shadow of death, and you can know this, precious sheep, that many times when you and I walk in
righteousness, it brings a challenge to our faith. Many times it brings persecution. (4) “Even though I walk
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through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for Thou art with me;” [He is with you; He will
never leave you; He will never forsake you. The Lord is your shepherd, you shall not want.]
I get a bulletin called The Prisoner Bulletin, and it is a ministry that was started by Georgie Vins after
he was released from Russia. He was a prisoner of the communists, and he suffered greatly over there.
Under President Carter he was exchanged for some other prisoners, and he was brought directly to the
United States of America. In his publication, he keeps us up on what is going on behind the Iron Curtain. I
want to say this, because I think so many times we think that because the Lord is my shepherd, and because
He says that I will never want, that I will not go through any rough spots; I will not go through any valleys.
That is not true!
He says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;” [And
you do not need to fear, because your Shepherd is there, and He loves you with a perfect love. Perfect love
casts out all fear, and yet, Romans 8 says this, “Because you are the sheep of His pasture, we are accounted
as sheep to be slaughtered.” We are put to death all day long. God does not exempt His sheep from trials.
When we go through those trials, no matter what they are, because of this intimacy of relationship, because
He is our Shepherd, and because we shall not want, and because He is leading us in paths of righteousness
for His name’s sake, you will turn around, and you will find, as the end of this psalm says, “Surely goodness
and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”
In this Prisoner Bulletin that I have, he goes on, and he says, “Let us thank the Lord for the thorny
paths along which He is leading His people in Russia. The path that we and our suffering brothers tread
passes through amazing places where we find the streams of God’s blessings. Whenever we are led by His
protecting hand, we find ourselves surrounded by His love.” When you read through these Prisoner
Bulletins you will know that these people truly walk through the valley of the shadow of death. They are
hungry; they are tormented by physical torture, and other things, and yet they are sustained; and in all of this
on the outside, they still do not want, because Jesus Christ is absolutely adequate for any situation in life. So
being a sheep, precious one, does not mean that you will not walk through the valley of the shadow of death;
but it means that when you do, you need not fear any evil, for He is with you, and His rod and His staff will
protect you. I believe that the rod is a picture of the word of God, and I believe that the staff (just looking at
it symbolically) is a picture of the Holy Spirit, who is with us to care for us.
He goes on to say: “Dear brothers and sisters, let us never cease to bring the names of our prisoners
before the Lord in prayer, for He alone is the help of His people in all generations, and He enables us to walk
in faith through the valley of the shadow of death. Not even the bravest, and staunchest, and most patient
man could ever in his own strength endure the horrors of persecution with joy and hope, blessing those who
curse him. Only through Christ can we do it. In all these things we are more than conquerors, but not in our
own strength, only in our Lord who loves us.”
The psalm goes on to say, (5) “Thou prepareth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;”
[It does not mean that we are not going to have enemies. When it says, “Thou prepareth a table before me in
the presence of mine enemies,” it means that in the midst of all these bulls of Bashan (as Psalm 22 talks
about) about us, gaping at us, trying to get us, that you and I can have that life of perfect rest and perfect
security.]
It tells about a prison in Russia, and they were celebrating Thanksgiving. It said, “We thanked God
for the food before us—two onions, three pieces of salted fish, a tin of sardines, a handful of cookies, a little
package of cheap candy, three rations of black bread, and a steaming pot of tea. It was a celebration rich
with meaning, because the Lord of love was with us—even in the midst of oppression, even in the presence
of my enemies He spreads a table. And you can make it because of that relationship to your Shepherd, the
Lord of love was with us.”
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He gives me a life of rest; He gives me a life of
guidance; He restores my soul. He cares about me, and when I turn around and look at my life, because the
Lord is Jehovah-raah, because He is my shepherd I will see, no matter what the path, that goodness and
mercy have followed me all the days of my life. And because I am His sheep, I will live forever in the
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sheepfold. I shall abide in the house of the Lord forever. That is ours, because we have come to God
through Jesus, the door into the sheepfold.
What about you? Have you heard the voice of your shepherd? And have you followed Him? He
says, “They hear My voice, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never, ever
perish.” Why? Because you dwell in the house of the Lord forever, because He is your shepherd.
Let’s pray. Father, thank You for Your word. Thank You for Your name. Thank You for who You
are. Thank You, Father, for calling us, for going out to find us, for sending the great Shepherd, for sending
the good Shepherd that lays down His life, the great Shepherd that walks with us. And someday, Father, the
chief Shepherd who will come again to take us home to be with Him. O Father, how we thank You, and how
we praise You for that relationship that we have with You in Christ Jesus. And Father, I just ask that You,
the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the
eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, will equip these people and myself with every good thing to do Your
will, working in us that which is pleasing in Your sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever
and ever. Amen.
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