Today's Passage:  Psalm 94-95

The verse that jumped out at me today as Psalm 95:7:  "We are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care."  When we were in Israel, we had the chance to visit with a shepherd and his flock near the town of Bethlehem.  It was amazing to watch him walk up the hill with a large herd of goats with nothing to control them but his voice.  There would have been no way for him to catch them if they decided to run...especially if they all ran at the same time...but there was no threat of running.  The goats knew that the safest, best place they could be is wherever the shepherd took them.  

At one point, the shepherd brought over a little lamb for us to hold for pictures.  The lamb, as you could imagine, was not very happy about being held by a bunch of strangers.  Even when it was too tired to struggle, you could feel its heart beating so hard...it knew that these people were not the one who made it feel safe and secure.  Only when it returned to the shepherd's hands did it relax.

Maybe it's because we aren't a shepherding people that we don't fully understand what God promises us when He says we will be his sheep.  He's promising us that if we will listen to His voice, we will be safe.  That may not be "safe" the way the world describes it, but we are always in the right place when we are listening to and following His voice.

Are you listening to the shepherd?  Are you following where He leads?