Good morning,
I am so glad that we can look forward to the new year confident that we will have everything that we need because we have the Lord as our shepherd. Even though the year ahead is far too complex for any of us to know accurately what to expect, our Good Shepherd knows exactly what will happen to each of us and exactly what the outcome will be because of the circumstances that he has arranged for the glory of our Heavenly Father. The people and governments around us may just see us as numbers or objects or problems, but our Shepherd sees us as eternal persons who are on their way to an eternity of joy and gladly given rewards. For many in our eternal family will be led as sheep to the slaughter, but their oppressors will never know how their anger led to a joy filled welcome to a country that has never persecuted even one of its citizens. It’s wonderful to remember that our Shepherd has promised that he would never leave us or forsake us and that he would always make a way to escape even the most powerful challenges we will ever face.
I am so glad that our Shepherd has a rod and a staff to help us foolish sheep when we give in or give up in the face of our sins and the sinful pleasures all around us. I am so glad that as our Father’s sheep we are not being led to be food for the enemy lion, but will be lead to a feast as guests who will eat at a table waited on by the Shepherd himself. I am so glad that when we get back home we will be greeted as righteous family members, not broken survivors barely rescued from the savage lions mouth. I am so glad that our Shepherd has assigned these momentous years to us as followers of our perfect loving Savior, to a world that is lost in the darkness of their sin and despair. I am so glad that I know that our Redeemer lives and that there is going to be a day, maybe during this very year, when we will stand with him at his throne and sing and celebrate his holy love and eternal forgiveness in a vast choir that will never sing in the wrong key or at the wrong time. I am so glad that we are on our journey home, and this year is part of that perfect eternal plan. Thank you Jesus that you will give us everything we need for this part of your perfect plan.
Psalm 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd; I have all that I need.
Roy Wisner
