Thursday December 14th, 2023
« I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep knows Me »
1 Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing.
3 Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
5 For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.
In today’s memory verse, Jesus Christ identifies who He is with respect to His responsibility towards His own.
To fully partake of all He has to offer, you need to play close attention to what He is saying here.
In that verse, He does not introduce Himself as any ordinary shepherd but as the Good Shepherd who has intimate knowledge of His sheep on an individual basis.
He also says the litmus test to know those who belong to Him is that they are able to recognize His voice, follow His guidance and obey His instructions.
In John 10:27 He confirms to us through these words that He is personally concerned about those who are his own.
He does not deal with us on an impersonal basis or bureaucratically from a distance.
This is made clear in Hebrews 4:15CEV, which says:
« Jesus understands every weakness of ours, because He was tempted in every way that we are. But he did not sin! »
Through the parable of the lost sheep, the Lord also assures us that He cares personally about every single member of His flock, so much so that even if one of them is lost, He will search until He finds that one (Luke 15:3-7).
Identity is very important to God.
Just as Jesus presented Himself as the Good Shepherd who knows His sheep and calls them by name,
He also expects His sheep to recognize His voice and come to His willingly.
More so, He expects that His sheep would disregard the voice of strangers.
He said in John 10:4-5 NKJV:
« 4 And when He brings out His own sheep, He goes before them; and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice. 5 Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from them, for my sheep do not recognize the voice of strangers. »
The Lord clearly indicates that He is only responsible for those who identify with Him and obey His commandments.
Are you one of those?
As the Good shepherd, the Lord watches over His sheep and protects them, even to the point of giving His life as the ultimate sacrifice for them (John 10:11).
Furthermore, Matthew 10:30 teaches that God has meticulously numbered every strand of our hair, and He is committed to doing everything necessary to protect us from every form of attack or harm.
He has proven in times past and even today that He keeps His commitments.
God consistently affirms in His word that His personal relationship with us is important to Him (2 Timothy 2:19).
Even though His providence extends to all of humanity, He specially cares for those who belong to Him (Hebrews 13:5, Matthew 5:45).
Therefore, if I were you, I would ensure that I belong to His fold for the rest of my life, to continue enjoying the awesome benefits He gives. Are you part of His sheep?
Author: Bishop Enoch. A. Adeboye.
Edited by Naomie
Freely you received, freely you must give (Math 10:8) , kindly share this devotion, and the Lord will bless you for it .
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