"I have everything I need."

She turns to look at me, shiny rainbow backpack in hand and a knowing grin gracing her face. “Mom, I have everything I need!” She’s steady and sure, with childlike confidence in her preparedness for the day ahead.

“I have everything I need.”

And I can’t help but think of Psalm 23:1 - the very first line of this well-loved psalm that points us toward heart of the shepherd and His provision for us: “The Lord is my shepherd…”

“I shall not want.” (KJV)

“I have all that I need.” (NLT)

“I don’t need a thing!” (MSG)

“I lack nothing.” (NIV)

Or in other words… “I have everything I need.”

I rarely think this way. The lack in my life feels so loud, and my desires and “needs” consume my thoughts. I am comparing…craving…discontent. How can I have everything I need when there is so much I don’t have?

And maybe that’s actually the point: we don't have it all. But we lack nothing because He is everything.

Our lack leads us straight into the arms of the Shepherd. It’s where we find Him to be enough - MORE than enough. It’s where we experience Him as the Bread of Life who satisfies our hunger and the Living Water who quenches our constant thirst. In His love for us, He allows us to experience lack so that we will recognize how desperately we need Him.

We so often miss out on the abundance that the Shepherd offers us because we are surviving with a scarcity mindset, focusing on shortcomings and insufficiencies in our lives. Our time, energy, money, relationships…they never feel like enough (and the list goes on). We are looking at that which we lack instead of locking eyes with the One who holds everything, who loves to provide exactly what we need at exactly the right time.

She says it again that afternoon: “I have everything I need!” And this time, I’m the one smiling, thinking of my Good Shepherd and His more than sufficient provision. All the ways He’s loving me - turning my lack on its head and giving me what I truly need.