If the Lord is my shepherd, then shepherds lead, care, feed their sheep, I must be a sheep in the Lord's flock. Interesting that God chooses the words to be inked in the Bible as a Shepherd, being Him, and the flock, his children are represented as sheep! How much do you know about sheep? Be warned, you need an open heart and mind to understand what I am about to say!
Sheep are the dumbest animals on the Earth. Sheep will not drink out of water that is moving, they will sit next to the water and die of thirst, because of their fear of moving water. Thankfully, the Shepherd leads them to "still waters" (Psalm 23:2). Sheep will eat in the same pasture until the last grain of grass is eaten and then die of starvation. It would never have dawned to them to walk to new lands, new places to look for new grass. Thankfully, the Shepherd "makes me lie down in green pastures," (Psalm 23:2) A sheep may stray from the flock, and thankfully, because the Shepherd cares so much about each of his sheep, that he goes off and finds the stray sheep (Luke 15:3-7). Now, the Shepherd breaks the leg of the sheep and carries him back on his shoulders, to remind the sheep to not stray again.
Now, you are thinking - wow, I endure enough in life, but I have just been equated to a sheep! Take heed - the analogy is one simplest enough for us to grasp, "We the sheep, God's children, have wondered off the directed path and away from the flock and he comes after us, because he loves us and doesn't want to lose one. While we are with the flock, we sometimes don't know which way to go, so he leads us to paths of righteousness (Psalm 23:3) or makes us lie down and rest (Psalm 23:2). God, our Shepherd, has our best in mind. It is his desire to see us walk the path that he has laid out before us."
"He will die for lack of DISCIPLINE, led astray by his own great folly."
Proverbs 5:23
It is vital for this sheep and the sheep reading this that we are not led by how we feel, but by what he says! Sometimes that means disciplining ourselves so that we do not become tempted to be led astray by our own stupdity. Here's an example: God says, "Be a good steward of what I have given to you." Then we are in debt up to our eyeballs! Is that following his plan? No! However, instead of getting back on the path and working through it we find ourselves at the store charging something on the credit card. I know this one pinches - but at one point it was a flaw in my life! Thankfully, there is one trait that is great about sheep! Sheep have a great sense of HEARING! When, the Great Shepherd, began to speak to my heart and mind pointing out what I was doing that was leading me astray by my own stupidity, I was able to place DISCIPLINES in my life to keep me with the flock and the plan because I HEARD and I obeyed.
I pray that as you go through your life this week, that you will allow your best sense of hearing to be open and ready to receive what the Shepherd is saying! Stop and listen. Just sit in a quiet room with christian music playing, your Bible open or simply nothing - just you and God - just listen. He will be speaking - the question is are you listening?
God Bless!
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