Welcome to 15 Minutes in the Word with New York Times bestselling author Joyce Meyer.

On today's program, Joyce will be teaching from her series Psalm 23, The Lord is My Shepherd.

We all have moments in life when we feel overwhelmed, times when we need direction and protection.

The psalmist David experienced these feelings, yet he also knew the one who could lead

him through life's dark valleys.

David knew that as our good shepherd, God wants to provide for us every single day.

Today Joyce takes a deeper look at David's Psalm 23, breaking it down verse by verse, revealing

the freedom we can have when we follow God's leading. Now, here's Joyce with today's teaching. So now here, let's just, we're going to read the rest of Psalm 23, then we're going to get started. Your rod and your staff, they guide and comfort me. Now, I don't know too many people that are too interested in the rod and the staff, so we're going to talk about that in just a minute. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil, my cup runs over. Surely only goodness and mercy shall follow me

all the days of my life, an unfailing love, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord and in his

presence forever. Now, the rod and the house of the Lord and in his presence forever.

Now, the rod and the staff, this is actually what they look like.

This was the rod, and it's just a long stick with a knob on the end of it, and a shepherd

practiced literally unbelievable amount of time, and he got very precise at throwing that thing to either ward off enemies

like if a wolf was coming around or a lion but he also sometimes would hurl it at the sheep

if it was wandering off getting in trouble something, he never did it for any reason

other than to keep them safe. And you know, a lot of times when something hurts us in life,

we don't understand why in the world God would not deliver us from everything that was

uncomfortable. But let me tell you something, even something that temporarily

hurts us can ultimately end up being very good for us, and we need to trust God that in those times

he's got our best interest in mind, and it will still work out good. I wrote on my notes,

even a no from God is a good thing.

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