Praise God for our Good Shepherd and all the care He continues to provide for His Flock!
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Ps 23:1 ESV
So who is our shepherd? The Lord. And whose is He the Shepherd of? The Lord is MY Shepherd! This talks about having a relationship. And this relationship is built on God’s Grace. There is a huge difference between religion and relationship, my Friends. Religion is all about works apart from this Grace. It focuses on what I can do, by myself, to be holy vs what God has already done to make us holy. Religion centers on rules and regulations which were never meant to change our hearts, but to point us to our need to have changed hearts. (see Ro 7:7-25) Sadly, these “laws” may be a used to increase our Pride, not get rid of it! “Look how holy I am!” we say when we get things right…but then we hang our heads low, trying to deny our fall, when we realize we can’t get it all right, all the time…thus our desperation for God’s Grace!
Humility is the only cure, as I have said a thousand times. This means we understand that it is the Shepherd who does all the real work, we sheep just follow. And even for this we need the Shepherd! The Shepherd is the manager of our days, moving us around life, providing both protection and supplies. The Shepherd is the care taker of our wounds as He uses the scrapes and bruises for our benefit. The Shepherd is also the owner of life, and more specifically, our life. You and I are expensive sheep, bought by the Blood of Christ.
Sheep are a whole lot of work to take care of…but our Good Shepherd delights in caring for us, and moreover, wants to make us aware of His delight so we can have, enjoy and share this Abundant Life with all the other sheep, as we work with Him to bring yet more into His Flock.
Join me in memorizing 52 verses this year:
January: 1- Jn 3:16; 2- 2Co 5:17; 3- Jas 2:26; 4- Eph 2:10
February: 5- Jn 10:10; 6- Ro 6:23; 7- Rev 21:4; 8- Php 4:13
March: 9- 1Pe 5:7; 10- Jn 8:32; 11- Dt 30:19; 12- Jn 3:30; 13- 2Chron 20:3
April: 14- 2Chron 20:12; 15- 2Chron 20:15b; 16- 2Chron 20:17
May: 17- Ro 8:28; 18- 1Co 13:13; 19- Php 2:12; 20- Mt 5:4
June: 21- Lk 23:42; 22- Jas 4:7; 23- Pr 22:6; 24- Mt 5:3; 25- Jn 14:6
July: 26- Jas 2:19; 27- Dt 31:8; 28- Jn 14:15; 29- Jn 8:11
August: 30- Ro 8:1; 31- Pr 4:23; 32- Pr 18:21; 33- Ps 118:24; 34- 1Jn 4:4
35- Mt 16:24
36- Isa 53:6
37- Ps 23:1
<>< Peace, Diane
