MY Shepherd

Psalm 23:1a,  "The Lord is MY Shepherd..."

Psalm 100:3b,  "We are his people, the sheep of his pasture."

      The Lord is the Good Shepherd who provides and cares tenderly, constantly, and intimately for His sheep.  His sheep thrive under His care.  Satan is a wicked shepherd, one who neglects, abuses, exploits, and deceives the sheep that follow him.  Picture a flock of gaunt, starving, diseased sheep in a pasture of dried up grass and poisonous weeds gazing longingly at lush green grass inside a fence where the healthy sheep of a good shepherd eat contentedly.  Sheep can only wish for a better shepherd and ideal grazing conditions, but people have the ability to choose which shepherd they will follow.  Can you say, as the psalmist David said,  "The Lord is MY shepherd?"  Are you following the Good Shepherd?

      John 10:7-10,  "Therefore Jesus said again, 'I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.  All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.  I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.  He will come in and go out, and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full."

Father, thank You that You want us to have eternal life and abundant life in this world, and You have provided both for us.  May we embrace and follow Christ, our Good Shepherd.  Amen.