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The 23rd Psalm is a very familiar scripture to us all, in fact it’s probably one of the first passages of scriptures we had to learn growing up.

It’s basically telling us much about the love God has in fulfilling the needs in every aspect of our lives.
King David knew the love and how much love a good shepherd has or should have for their sheep as well as the lambs. One can only imagine the good days and bad days for a shepherd, no matter which shows up the most, the love of a true shepherd never changes about their flock.

King David, a shepherd by trade, had the ability to contrast between the secular shepherd and the spiritual shepherd. His physical job was to care for sheep and lambs, and on some occasions his responsibilities were very demanding. He went from saving sheep and lambs from lions and bears as well as human prowlers, and many times kept them from wandering into dangerous areas.
David’s responsibilities took him to the point of checking each sheep at night for scratches and bruises. This is the love that Pastors should have for their members.

When we read John 14:15v. It basically tells us if we have love for God, we will not only be in agreement with Him, we will follow and be obedient to the instructions He gives.

If our love is not strong towards God, it will not be strong towards people nor the agenda that involves giving attention to their spiritual and even their physical well-being.
The law of God is just love spelled out in understandable terms. We find in Matthew 22:37v.,39v, that God lays out the law concerning love, there are two positions of love that all true believers must have: love horizontally, and love vertically.

Horizontally = having love for our neighbors locally and foreign. Jesus was questioned in Luke 10:29v. concerning the description of a neighbor, He replied with the episode of the man that was injured on the road to Jericho. The key character in this story was that which was seen in the Samaritan. This reflects a mere stranger showing love to a stranger; therefore, we know by this scripture that we have more neighbors than those next door.

Vertically = in this position of love it only involves two people, God and you. This love takes you to the extreme of loving God with every part of your heart, soul, and mind. When you think in terms of praise and worship, praise entails of you and others merging your voices together in giving praises to God, when you enter into worship it only involves you and God. We can basically see from this that Horizontal love, and Vertical love has some similarities with praise and worship.

Conquering this position of love will totally guarantee the presence of God’s favor and approval upon your life as you go forth carrying out the will and plans of God.
Let us remember, the law of God has two aspects to it. Looking up and looking out. Looking up engages us, now we know Love is a relationship with others in which we respond to them as God would have us to do.
Looking out is seeing those we need to connect with. Let us follow God’s path of love as we follow the global positioning system better known as the (GPS) and when we do, we will find ourselves stars and co-stars in God’s agenda of love.

Stewart Ham is the pastor of New Growth Unlimited Ministries Inc. in Aurora.