Our Daily Bread: Lead Like the ShepherdSample

We Need a Shepherd

Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd. -1 Peter 2:25

Every sheep needs a shepherd. That was certainly true for “Baarack,” the name rescuers gave a wild and wooly lost sheep discovered in an Australian forest.

When found, Baarack was weighed down by more than seventy-eight pounds (thirty-five kg) of thickly matted wool. Staffers from Edgar’s Mission Farm Sanctuary gave the poor creature a much-needed trim.

Just as Baarack needed the help of caring shepherds, so do we.

The apostle Peter wrote that believers in Jesus need the care of the “Shepherd, the Guardian of [our] souls” (1 Peter 2:25). The apostle references Isaiah 53:6: “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own.”

Both Peter and Isaiah describe our constant need for the Shepherd’s care and protection. Peter notes that we’re lost, wandering, selfish, helpless, and ignorant of our Shepherd’s love. When we repent of our sin and surrender our lives to Jesus, who “carried our sins” (v. 24), we’re returned to the loving care and protection of our Good Shepherd and Guardian of our souls.

We’re all prone to wander from the safety of the Shepherd’s care, and we need Him to lead us back to the fold. Protected by His presence and perfected by His power, we then in turn can lead others to Him.

Marvin Williams

When did you realize you needed to be rescued by your Shepherd and Guardian? How can you now help guide others to the Good Shepherd?

Dear God, I admit I can be selfish and prone to wander. Please lead me back to Your fold.