Monday, August 15, 2011

Lamplight

“No one is able to snatch them out of my hand.”
John 10:28 

          Once again, Jesus used the metaphor of Shepherd and Sheep to describe his relationship with those who follow him.  “My sheep hear my voice and follow, and I give them eternal life”, he said.  Discipleship is distilled down to its essence.  It is about hearing and following. 

          It sounds simple, but every genuine disciple has struggled with the question, “Am I really understanding what God wants me to do?”  That’s the life question that really matters, and most of us spend a lifetime trying to find the answer.  And when we do come to some conviction that this one thing in our lives is the will of God, we face the even more difficult task of following.  

          Sometimes obedience to God is easy, but most of the time it is a struggle, because there are, the Apostle Paul said, “principalities and powers” that would draw us away from God.  There are temptations that whisper to us that faith and obedience are too hard, and those with an apparent lack of faith seem to be doing all right.  They don’t seem to be struggling with their conscience.  Wouldn’t it be easier to live like that? 

          Jesus said, “no one can snatch us out of his hand.”  These principalities and powers and temptations do not have the power. They cannot take us out of our savior’s hand, but we can leave it.  We can decide to let go, but if we do life drifts farther away from God, and life becomes more empty.