We are called to be God’s sheep. We are not to be transformed by this world and it’s ways, we need God to lead us. Jesus once said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep…The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:7,10). How is it that we can go from a mundane life to an abundant one? It is only by the Lord.
Yes we will go through difficulties but it is nothing that hinders the God type of life. Some claim that prosperity is not a part of a Christians life. Yet throughout the Old Testament when Israel would follow God, they were financially blessed. When Israel rejected God and follow false idols, they were sent into exile. They went through more suffering when they did not follow their Shepherd. A sheep doesn’t have the protection that the other wild animals have. It is safe around a flock. It is safe by the Shepherd.
M.P. Krikorian grew up in a village near Tarsus in southeast Turkey. While he was young him and his father would herd a flock of sheep. He later moved and became Methodist pastor in America, he wrote about his experiences as a shepherd, “Within sound and sight of water they (the sheep) would all begin to run toward it, showing that they were very thirsty. Yet, at their arrival, as I watched them, only a few would be drinking, while others all along the edge of the water, like the pedestrians on a fashionable street in a great metropolis, keep passing each other up and down the stream. . . . I learned the valuable lesson that they do not drink from rippling waters. They continue until every last one of them had found a quiet little pool between stones showing up above the ripples. . . . No turbid streams or ruffled rivulets will tempt them. . . . They want waters that move quietly.”
It is the Lord that guides us by the still waters. Notice in Psalm 23 it says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4 KJV). We go from God leading us to us walking. God never led David through the valley of the shadow of death, it was his walk. A lot of our financial, health, and relationship pain we face today is because of our own decisions. We can’t just look and blame the Shepherd if we did something He told us not to do.
The voice of the Shepherd is the number one way a Shepherd knows who His sheep is. When you call your pet they will hear your call and follow. With God when He calls our name, we must follow. This world has many leaders and many voices. It’s good to be informed and up to date. Just don’t follow them as much as you follow the Shepherd. Don’t be a sheep to this world, be a sheep of the Lord.
Courage With Grace Ministries 