Speaker: Heath McCoy

We don’t often consider fear as a part of our… read more

You can’t be friends with someone if you don’t love them. As Christians, we should keep our love and passion for Jesus fresh. To do this, we can take the advice given to the church of Ephesus – remember our first love.

We have the deepest conversations with our closest friends. God wants to have those deep conversations with us, too, and the strongest friendship we could ever know. God isn’t looking for us to be perfect, but to get closer to him and listen to him.

Being a friend of God means we go beyond simply admiring and following God – we actively pursue depth and trust with Him. Friends of God know His voice, influence others by their faith, know His character, walk with God, and experience God’s provision.

Jesus prepares a table for us, his sheep, and gives us a place where our needs are met. Even in the midst of enemies we can have peace knowing our shepherd is near, greater than all, and anoints us with the Holy Spirit to protect our hearts and minds.

We don’t like to be in dark places, or feel like we’re in a “valley of the shadow of death.” We want to be on the mountaintop! To get to those mountaintop places, we must walk through valleys, understanding that these are the places we grow, learn to trust and rely on God more, and can find indescribable peace despite our circumstances.

A good shepherd leads his sheep down right paths, taking care of them and leading them to places of safety and prosperity. We, too, have a good shepherd in Jesus that will lead us to grander places if we follow him, let him lead, and trust his protection, provision, and plan.

An interesting thing about sheep – if a sheep gets rolled over on its back, it’s considered “cast” and can’t get back up. A sheep needs the help of the shepherd to get back on its feet. Similarly, when we feel like life has left us upside down, we need the help of our good shepherd Jesus to save and restore us.

We are all led by something. We follow different things, looking for satisfaction and fulfillment, but ultimately still thirst for something more. When we let Jesus lead us, he will lead us to waters that satisfy.