Daily
Devotional

When Jesus was here on earth, from time to time He used sheep to illustrate a point. I grew up in a city, and much of what I know about sheep comes from reading the Bible; however, I have heard that they are one of the dumbest animals and quite helpless.

Some years ago, while working in the country, I saw these characteristics illustrated. Our jobsite was accessed by a long driveway next to a farm where there were a few sheep. As I went to work one day, I noticed a sheep with its head poked through one of the square holes in the wire fence. Obviously, that sheep thought the grass was greener on the other side of the fence! I figured that once the sheep had eaten the accessible grass it would move on. However, as I was driving away from the job hours later, the sheep was still in the same spot! Clearly it was stuck, so I stopped to tell the owner. The farmer’s response was, “Oh, they do that all the time. We’ll go out after awhile and pull it out.” That sheep did not know enough to simply pull its head back, nor did it learn from previous bad experiences.

How interesting that the Bible so often compares humans to sheep! When I remember that sheep in the fence, it makes me think of the way that we can get spiritually stuck in bad situations and not know how to get out of them. Thankfully, the Lord is the Good Shepherd and will help us if we cry out to Him. When He does, hopefully we learn from those experiences, but sometimes the lessons must be reinforced.  

How can we avoid “holes in the fence” and getting “stuck”? The first step is to recognize our need for God’s guidance every day in each area of our lives. Then, if we make it our purpose to have our ears tuned to the Voice of the Good Shepherd, He will keep us in the right place spiritually. He paid the price to take away our iniquities, and He wants to lead us every moment. Will we let Him?