The scripture, and one of my favorite verses in Psalms, talk about living like a sheep. After hearing the comedian Ken Davis describe “geeky sheep”, I always jump to his comedy routine describing them. (you can view the brief cut of this on YouTube Ken Davis Live: Super Sheep | movie | 1996 | Official Trailer – video Dailymotion)
He has a really cool, and funny, full routine that leads you to Godly results – worth listening to if you get a chance.
So when my favorite devotional author, Henry Blackaby, said “Living like a sheep can bring you incredible peace of mind!” – I had to first get past Ken Davis’ geeky sheep routine. “Geeky sheep” was all I could think about and I had to wipe the smile off my face.
As I read further in Blackaby’s discussion, it was clear that he was actually pointing to the biblical shepherd – describing how they knew everything about their own sheep. What foods were best, what would harm them, when they should eat and when they were thirsty. He was an expert at the terrain and knew the best places for food and water.
But here was the key point — “As long as the sheep trusted and followed their shepherd, they would always have their needs met at the right time. Their shepherd would give them the best that he had.”
Of course, the comparison is with my Good Shepherd – He cares for me and did lay down His life for me. And just as David’s 23rd Psalm recites for me – and as David fully believed – I “want” for nothing because of the very nature of the Good Shepherd who leads me.
Or do I? All too often, I have allowed my focus to shift from the Shepherd to what the Shepherd gives me. Blackaby pulls out this key point. “If you find yourself ‘wanting,’ it is not that your Shepherd is unable or unwilling to perfectly meet your needs. It may be that you lack the faith to receive all that He has to give.” That is painful to hear but as I explore it further, I can see the truth in it.
What causes me to become dissatisfied? Missing the joy that comes from having the Shepherd be my provider?
I go back to an earlier teaching by Blackaby about how dangerous it is to live my life without a spiritual “plumb line,” or standard, by which I can determine right from wrong. I know that God’s word is that plumb line.
Just as Blackaby described it, God established absolute moral and spiritual laws that we are free to ignore – and we do so at our peril. They are timeless – Biblical truth is just as true today as it was when He revealed it in His word through His people and situations recited there.
Now I know the laws of our society and culture in which we live – and as a trained lawyer, I know how to research and find the basic laws and even work through tricky conflicts of law to get to “the law” that applies in a specific case.
As Blackaby pointed out, culture does not supersede God’s laws — they are eternal and will save me from death if I follow them. And therein is a key to my issue. All too often, I find myself feeling like God’s laws are restrictive or not clear or hard to understand and apply. Yes, I am jumping to excuses rather than going deeper to find my “plumb line”. Only then will I follow what I know is really true – that God knows best for me and His word and laws are there to protect me.
The hard truth was pulled out for me by Blackaby’s statement: “Sin is choosing a standard other than God’s law on which to base your life.…lawlessness is sin.”
I find myself substituting my thinking, my planning, my way of viewing what is best for me. I feel confident I can do this myself – I can work it out, figure it out, and then somehow skate past checking out what God seems to be leading me to do or His lack of presence in supporting “my way” of working things out.
I flip back to Blackaby’s question posed to me. “Do you have absolute trust in your Good Shepherd?” He asks if I worry that God might be withholding from me something that I “need” or I find myself dissatisfied with the direction God seems to be leading. Am I thinking “surely God would want me to have this – or do that.” But His assurance and presence are absent, if I am truthful.
I am asking in my prayers that he teach and guide me – but I am not listening very well. Mostly, I am not deep down trusting that God knows better than I: what I need, which path I should travel and how to work out the situation I am finding blocks me reaching the goal I have set.
Back to Blackaby’s statement that living like a sheep can bring me “incredible peace of mind.” There’s my clue. When I don’t have “peace of mind”, that probably means I have been wandering off down “my” path of how things should go rather than trusting God who, frankly, is not leading me down that particular path. Instead, if I observe and listen, He is seemingly directing me down another path. And that way just doesn’t make sense to me, or fit what I think is the way to go. There it is – lack of trust in Him and His way.
Thankfully, Blackaby knew self-sufficient “I know how to do this” folks like me needed direction. And reminding. Just as scripture, the true plumb line, says it. “Return to Him and trust Him to meet the needs in your life that only He can.”
May “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.” (Psalm 23:1) become a pathway of thinking and trusting for us all!
