“Yahweh is my best friend and my shepherd. I always have more than enough” Psalm 23:1, TPT

The first scripture I ever learned was Psalm 23. And as I sit in a strange season of my life, I keep hearing it echo in my heart: “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.”

Over the years, I’ve heard this scripture interpreted in many different ways. But today—right here, right now—it has taken on a new and profound meaning for me.

To give a little context, I am a creature of habit. I get very used to the way things are. I notice even the slightest of changes, and if I’m honest, I usually hate any form of change. My natural instinct is to try, with all my might, to get things back to how they were.

This makes me the opposite of easygoing.

I frequently need to be reminded by the Lord to go with the flow and not fight the current.

This season of my life has been marked by change on many levels—relationships shifting, career changes, parental changes, body changes, and so much more. I’ve had to learn how to be okay with adjusting to a new way of doing things, a new rhythm, a new normal.

So when Psalm 23 says, “The Lord is my Shepherd,” and follows it with, “I shall not want,” here’s how I’m hearing it in this season.

If I truly believe He is a good Shepherd, then I have to believe that everything I actually need will be brought to me. If that’s true, then there is no need to live from a place of wanting—striving, grasping, chasing—because what is required for my life will be supplied.

That realization reframes everything.

So take a moment and think about the thing you “want.”

Now consider this: if you truly needed it, you’d have it. And every step you’re taking right now is bringing you closer—not to the wants of a former version of yourself—but to the wants of the healed you, the transformed you, the matured you.

I’ve been seeing this play out lately in my relationships and in other areas of my life. Sometimes I want what a former version of me needed, simply because I don’t like change. But God doesn’t shepherd us backward. He leads us forward—into wholeness.

So here’s a question worth sitting with:

Are you chasing what served you in prior seasons?