A Shepherd And His Sheep

John 10:10 “A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” (CSB)

In the past, my life had its ups and downs. Back then, sometimes everything was great. Then a few days after the ‘great’, things would drop to ‘not-so-great’. I used to wonder ‘why’ this happened. When my relationship with God became strong, I understood those times better. My ‘ups’ back then were from the victories I acquired under my own power. Or at least I thought that was the case. I realize that the ‘world’ allowed me that happiness. It did that because it knew I wasn’t strong enough, by myself, to keep the world from taking that happiness away from me. In other words, the world could always beat me under my own power.

Then as a Christian I learned that the world cannot beat God’s power. God created us and equipped us to conquer this. Knowing that the world was stronger than us, God created in us the tools that He would use when we allowed Him to. This allowance comes from us when we seek the relationship with Him so that He can give us His ‘peace’ and ‘joy’. These two gifts are everlasting and will help us to endure our trials. 

The world may allow us happiness. But the gifts from the world always have an expiration date. This is where the ‘downs’ come from in our ‘ups’. There is no expiration date on God’s gifts. How do we receive these gifts? We find it in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In John Chapter 10, Jesus has a conversation with His disciples about a shepherd and his sheep. Jesus tells His disciples that the sheep hear the shepherd’s voice and follow his voice only. All others who come for the sheep are thieves. 

Jesus says that He is our Shepherd, and all who come to Him will have everything they need. The world, the devil, or thief, (however we may make reference), may be able to steal our happiness, because under our own power we can only go so far in protecting ourselves. But with our ‘Shepherd’s’ power of protection and provision, we will have victory. Inside that victory is everything we will ever need. The scripture above gives us the warning about staying close to Jesus. Because as sheep we cannot stray away from the Protector. Outside of this powerful protection, the world only comes to steal our faith. The devil only comes to kill our hope. And the thief only comes to destroy our relationship with God.

But if we keep that hope in our hearts strong, and believe our Savior when He says in scripture, “...I have come…” so that we may have, “...life and have it in abundance.” We realize the thief cannot steal from God. And he cannot steal from God’s children. God, through His Son Jesus Christ, has given us everything we need to keep the thief from being successful in his attempts at the destruction in our lives. God’s peace and joy are everlasting as we continue to walk in our strong relationship with The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.

Amen

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