Tag Archives: sheep

May 17, 2024 · 5:35 AM

Being Sheep

One of the things that bothers me is how the world has made the word sheep a negative thing to call someone. What’s worse is that we as believers have adopted this thinking. Throughout the Bible, we are referred to as sheep, yet many are now trying to run from this identity. Lions and wolves don’t need a shepherd, so we like to identify with them. “Lions, not sheep,” is what I hear people say. When we try to be anything other than sheep, we are trying to replace the Lord as the shepherd of our life. We are incapable of being a good shepherd for ourselves and our enemy will use anything or anyone else to try to trick us into following their voice. That’s why Jesus told us His sheep know His voice and will follow Him. Whose voice is leading your life right now? Is it yours, someone else’s or God’s? We’re all following a shepherd. Make sure the Lord is your shepherd.

Here are some Bible verses on being sheep.

1. Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Psalms 100:3 NLT

2. “You, my sheep, the flock that I feed, are my people, and I am your God,” says the Sovereign Lord.

Ezekiel 34:31 GNT

3. Listen carefully: I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; so be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves [have no self-serving agenda].

Matthew 10:16 AMP

4. For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness.
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Psalm 95:7-8 ESV

5. And when he has brought out all his sheep, he walks ahead of them and they will follow him, for they are familiar with his voice. But they will run away from strangers and never follow them because they know it’s the voice of a stranger.

John 10:4-5 TPT

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

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October 23, 2023 · 5:46 AM

Returning To The Shepherd

A sheep’s greatest need is not food and water. Their greatest need is a shepherd. They cannot survive without one. They naturally flock together, but without a shepherd they tend to get distracted at times and wander from the heard. They’re also a defenseless breed. Without a shepherd to protect them, they are easy targets for predators. Also sheep must be sheared at least once a year. Without a shepherd doing that, their wool will get matted up and become too heavy to bear. They will either succumb to the weight of it or get sick from the diseases that wil be acquired from the matted wool. The last reason why sheep can’t survive without a shepherd is because they wouldn’t be able to find pasture or water for themselves. Without a shepherd they would eventually starve to death.

In Mark 6, Jesus and the disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee. Verse 34 says, “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things” (ESV). Jesus saw the people and knew they couldn’t survive without a shepherd and needed spiritual food. After teaching them, the disciples saw they were hungry and asked the Good Shepherd to send them away to find their own food. Jesus, who was trying to teach the disciples how to shepherd people, told them to feed these sheep. They replied they didn’t have enough money to feed them all and they only had five loves of bread an two fish. In the Good Shepherd’s hands, that was enough to care for a flock of five thousand. These sheep need their shepherd to provide spiritual and physical food.

Zachariah 1:3 says, “Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.” Have you wandered away from the flock and the Shepherd? We all do it at times. We get distracted by the cares of this world and we sometime put a greater priority on earthly things. You need the Good Shepherd if you’re going to survive. You need the flock of your local church as well with God’s under shepherd. You can’t survive on bread alone. I know because I’ve tried it before. God is calling to each of us, searching for us to bring us back into His flock. We need His loving care so we are not weighed down by the cares of this world. We need to return to Him so we can find lie down in green pastures and rest beside streams of water. Our natural place is with Him. If you’ve been separated for whatever reason, call out to Him today and return. He is a loving shepherd who won’t be mad at you. Instead, He has compassion for you each time He sees you and wants to be your shepherd.

Photo by Chilli Charlie on Unsplash

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October 28, 2020 · 5:57 AM

Being Shepherd Led

One of the things in the Bible that has lost context over the years are the constant metaphors to sheep and shepherds. The Old and New Testament talk about sheep a lot. We know Psalm 23 starts out that the Lord is our shepherd. In Mark 6:34, Jesus had compassion on the crowd because they were sheep without a shepherd. Ezekiel 34:31 says that we are the sheep of God’s pasture. Isaiah 53 says that we are like sheep who have gone astray. Over and over there’s this comparison to sheep, but shepherding sheep isn’t as common as it used to be. I don’t know a lot about them, but I do know that they are defenseless, like to flock together and prefer to be led from the front rather than pushed from behind.

As a person who teaches leadership, I can tell you that people need a want a leader worth following. As John Maxwell says, “Leadership is influence.” By that definition, we all have leaders in our life who influence or lead our decisions. 2 Peter 3:17 warns us about who we allow to lead or influence us. It says, “As for you, divinely loved ones, since you are forewarned of these things, be careful that you are not led astray by the error of the lawless and lose your firm grip on the truth” (TPT). We must be careful in who we allow to lead us because there are those who would lead us astray. Even Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:1 to only follow Him as he followed Christ. It’s important to know who’s leading the people that are leading us.

Leaders and pastors will be held to a higher standard on judgement day (James3:1), but you will still be held liable for your actions. That’s why it’s important for each of us to not just follow a person. We must also be led by the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:25 says, “Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives” (NLT). We must know our shepherd’s voice for ourselves without relying on another leader to hear it for us. If we don’t learn to hear it ourselves, we can easily be led astray. Each of us must take time to listen to what God says through His Word and to our hearts. Anyone who gives contradictory advice to what God says will lead you astray. We are to be Spirit led more than people led, but our sheepish nature simply wants to follow the sheep right in front of us. We must fight against that and listen to the Shepherd ourselves.

Photo by Ronnie Overgoor on Unsplash

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