Follow You Like Sheep

HE GOES ON AHEAD OF THEM AND HIS SHEEP FOLLOW HIM BECAUSE THEY KNOW HIS VOICE. John 10.4.

It is one thing to know God’s Word but quite another to experience them in your life. One of our greatest problems, especially when we go through trouble, is that we are not so sure of the promises of the Lord’s love and compassion and His willingness to hear our prayers and cries. Even though you know and believe that God loves you and that you are His child and He has promised to be with you always and help you in time of need, you still doubt all these when you are in distress. You cry out but God doesn’t seem to answer quickly enough or not at all. “How could God leave us alone in our trouble?”, we moan.

There is only one answer. It is to find a stable and on-going relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd of your soul. You could trust in the Lord and live the rest of your life as a ‘nominal Christian or church member’ but it wouldn’t contribute to living a vibrant, day-to-day relationship with the Lord. A shallow knowledge, understanding and experience of the Lord will not help you very much in times of trouble!

What will really help you in all circumstances of life, good or bad which assail all of us, is to take the time and trouble to develop the kind of relationship the Lord Jesus Christ describes to us in today’s passage: 1) The sheep listen to His (the Lord’s) voice - Do you take time to listen to Him? Do it! 2) He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out - Do you wait on Him to call you and lead you or do you just get out and go your own way each day? 3) The Lord goes on ahead of them - Do you go without the Lord and look for Him only when you are in trouble? 4) His sheep follow Him - Do you know that you could really practice letting the Lord go before you each day and in every situation? It is safer. Try it! 5) They know His voice – To hear and know the Lord’s voice, you have to make time and spend time reading God’s Word. Just begin to do it! If you only wait to hear from preachers and prophets, you may miss ‘the Master’s Voice!’

Pray and practise with me: Dear Lord, my Good Shepherd, teach me to listen to Your voice and follow You like the poor sheep! You carry helpless lambs on Your shoulder. Carry me too. Amen.