Names of God: Through Thanksgiving & Christmas / Day 7

Names of God: Through Thanksgiving & Christmas

Day 7 of 30 Jesus describes His intimate connection with His people as the Good Shepherd. Jesus makes it clear that He knows His sheep and His sheep know Him. What a blessing and privilege it is to have an intimate connection with Jesus. As our Shepherd, Jesus is our source of grace and glory, and our giver of all good things. A believer's pilgrimage on earth is the transformational journey in which she draws closer to God during this life on earth. Every circumstance, every hurt, every laugh, every tear we have every experienced is purposed in our lives to draw us yet nearer to the goodness of God. Through our individual journeys, the Lord is to be our final destination. Our decisions are to be filtered through God's desires for us. Our needs are to be given to Him. Our "trash" is to be surrendered to Him. In our journey through our valleys, our plateaus, and our mountaintops, we are to praise God as the source of all of our needs. Through the storms and the heat, though we may be weary and tired, we are to praise God for his gifts of grace and focus on His glory. In our journey, we are to remember that the Lord is our Shepherd and He laid His life down for us. The Lord withholds no good thing from us. We can trust Him no matter our circumstance, because we belong to Him and because He wants nothing but the best for us.  Will you choose to trust the Lord when circumstances may not be in your favor? Will you trust that the Lord will never leave or forsake You?  Father God, I thank You for this journey with You. I thank You for laying down your life for me. I thank You for leading me and guiding me. I thank You for never leaving me. Lord, help me to glorify You no matter the circumstance. When I waver in my trust of You, remind me that You withhold no good thing for me. Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief. In Jesus' name. Amen.   John 10:1-6 John 10:11-15 John 10:1-6 NKJV 1 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.  2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.  3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  4And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.  5 Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”  6 Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them. John 10:11-15 NKJV 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.  12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.  13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.  14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.  15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.