11/02/2018
Have you allowed Jesus to lead you into full and abundant life, or are you satisfied with merely existing in Him? Do you allow Him to own you completely, and have full reign in your life, or have you only leant yourself to Him, and become like a sheep under the watch of a hired hand? Have you given yourself to Him as a prized possession, or merely treat him as a servant; a sheep that is His to watch for a day, but in which there is no joy of ownership? Are you a sheep that follows a stranger, or one that follows a loving master who would lay down a His life for you?
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
John 10:10-11 ESV
Before I go to my Monday night prayer meeting, I eat dinner each week in a small Gyro restaurant owned by a man from Egypt. He waits on his customers with great attention and goes out of his way to please them. He has others who he has hired to help him, but he is the spark and the life behind the business. Rarely does he take a day off because this is his business, and its success means the world to him... his customers are the focus of his attention, unlike those who just work there. When I walk in he joyfully calls out my favorite dish, and says “Right?” It is as if we have known each other for many years... the others greet me by saying “Hello sir!” They know me, but to them I am just a customer.
Jesus wants to treat us like the good shepherd that owns the flock. He wants to give us His best, and lavish us with attention and love. He wants to take pride in us, and give us the same care that the restaurant owner likes to heap onto his customers. The question becomes this... will you allow Him to treat you as His prized possession, or do you draw back and limit him to knowing you as if He were just a hired servant? Jesus wants us to be a His sheep, and listen to these verses of scripture as He tells is what this means...
“He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,”
John 10:12-14 ESV
If the little Gyro place that I frequent ever had a grease fire in the kitchen, the owner would shout the alarm to His customers and rush them to safety, then He would risk himself to put it out, but the hired help would run out the door shouting, and possibly call the fire department on their cell phone once they themselves were safely outside.
“just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
John 10:15-16 ESV
Jesus wants to treat us with the care of a good shepherd, a restaurant owner, but are we willing to allow Him to do this? Are we willing to accept the abundant life and care that He extends to us, or do we hold ourselves back? Even though we know the restaurant belongs to Him, do we only allow Him to treat us as if He were a hired hand? Do we ignore His extended hand?
Jesus wishes to treat us like family and share with us all the blessings of the Father. He wants us to have the same abundant life that He has, and for this reason He sends the Holy Spirit to each of us.
“What is it that particularly constitutes this abundant life? We cannot too often repeat it or in different ways too often explain it: The abundant life is nothing less than Jesus having full mastery over our entire being through the power of the Holy Spirit.” - Andrew Murray
So are we prepared to accept abundant life, or are we satisfied with something less? Are we open to His mastery, and the good shepherd, or looking at him as if He were nothing more than a keeper of the flock? How do we choose to live?
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the Good Shepherd in my life! I thank you for your Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who bring me abundant life! You have blessed me by your love and grace Holy Father, and I accept the full care of Jesus as He watches over me; as He who owns me. You have given me to Him, and in Him I am well cared for, protected, and fed. Help me Father to hear His voice and follow Him always. Help me as I give myself completely into His hand, and ownership, and help me to drink fully from His cup of life. I thank you for His rod and staff that comfort me, because they bear your mark Father, and identify me as yours. In Jesus I find abundant life, and through it I will dine at your Table forever. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who have provided the wine and the bread. Great is your mercy and grace that flows over me, and gives me abundance in all your many blessings. Wonderful is your Son Jesus, and your Holy Spirit through whom you have given me life abundantly! Praised be your name always Father, and may we glorify you each and every day.
Rich Forbes