today’s thought

Today has been a very busy day…Whitney and I hosted a group of Guardians ad Litem for a Christmas drop-in. And since it wasn’t raining today I had to put up ALL OF THE OUTSIDE CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS before the wet, rainy, snow blizzard comes tomorrow!

And yet through all of this I’ve had a few moments to think about Sunday’s message from Micah 5:1-4.

The main point of the message is that in this passage when Micah prophesies to Israel and Judah who are facing an all out assault by the Assyrians (which, concidentally, is never a good thing in the Bible!), he says that one day the Messiah will come and be their…get ready for this…Shepherd!

Shepherd? Shepherd? If I’m at war with another nation I think I’d like to have a WARRIOR-KING-LEADER! Not a shepherd!

After spending some time reflecting on this passage…I think shepherd is actually one of the most powerful images of Jesus that we could have. Just think about the spiritual implications of Jesus as our shepherd. It means…

• That Jesus is our provider. He provides for every need that you and I have…NO EXCEPTIONS!
• That Jesus protects us from evil. This doesn’t mean that nothing bad or even horrible will ever happen…but it does mean that through bad or horrible situations in life HE WILL PROTECT US!
• That we should seek to follow Him in every area of our life.
• That we can trust him in every area of our life.
• That we can count on Jesus to always lead us in the right direction. That’s pretty awesome just to know that Jesus, our shepherd, will always lead us in a direction that leads to life and life more abundant!

I think this idea of Jesus as the shepherd of our life is pretty deep when you really think about it.

Is Jesus the shepherd of your life?