Our everyday life is often a collection of ups and downs, highs and lows. Our lives are marked with times of stress and heartache to season of joy and serenity and all the different times in between. Yet through it all, God is every present, relentlessly attentive and gracious towards, wanting to journey with soul. “The Lord is My Shepherd, I shall not be in want”, is more than just something we recite, but an invitation to a way of life that is enjoyable, unhurried and full. What would your days look like if this was really true for you? How would your life be different – you anxieties, joys, confidence, freedom – if you truly lived in the reality of this Psalm? Come and experience this journey for your soul.

Read Psalm 23:4

• What do these passages tell us about God?
• What do these passages tell us about you and your life?
• In what ways have you experienced this verse in the valleys of your life?

Ps Chee shared that verse 4 is a vision of what life in the valley can look like when God is our shepherd:

Break into groups of three and discuss one or more of the following relevant questions.

• Hand out some post-it pads to each member. Identify the moments of ‘pain’ in your life. Put it in a timeline of chronological order. Share your valleys in life with one another. How have you dealt with your valleys in life?
• Ps Chee shared that sometimes we have an ‘only if’ mentality when it comes to valleys in our lives. However, the Psalm gives us an ‘even though’ mentality. Which mentality do you have towards your valleys? How does an ‘even though’ mentality impact the way you walk through your valley?
• What were some of the fears you experienced in your valley? How did God deliver you from your fears? Why does God sometimes not remove the evil but instead deliver us from our fears?
• Ps Chee shared that sometimes we put the weight of impossible expectations on people around us when we go through a valley. We need to take the weight off from people and put it on God who is the only one who can be our Saviour. Have you seen or experienced this before? What does it mean to ‘take the weight off people’ and put it on God?
• Spend some time praying this prayer out loud together. Follow it with 5 minutes of silence and allow God to speak to you through it.

“I pray not for my valleys to be removed, escaped or avoided, but for my attitude and experience in the valley. I will not sit, or try to run through my valleys, but I will walk through my valley because this is where You do your deepest, greatest, most convicting and transforming work in me. This is where You become most personal to me, it is where I learn that You are with me. This is where I am most lonely, but yet most alone with You. I can walk through my valley without my what if’s, but walk through without fear, or discomfort because these are the two things that only in God alone I will find in my valley.”

1. Is there a truth that God wants you to obey?
2. What will you do to obey this? I will…