The Upper Room Daily Devotional Nashville, Tennessee, United States “4th Sunday in Lent" for Sunday, 15 March 2015 - Scripture: John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, since he isn’t a shepherd and the sheep aren’t his own, sees the wolf coming, abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf drags them off and scatters them. 13 The hired worker behaves like this because that’s all he is, a hired worker; so it doesn’t matter to him what happens to the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; I know my own, and my own know me — 15 just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father — and I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep. 16 Also I have other sheep which are not from this pen; I need to bring them, and they will hear my voice; and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
17 “This is why the Father loves me: because I lay down my life — in order to take it up again! 18 No one takes it away from me; on the contrary, I lay it down of my own free will. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again. This is what my Father commanded me to do.”
Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”[John 10:11 (CEB)]
I was in a meeting when it started. We all looked out the window in awe of the unfamiliar “white stuff” falling from the sky. “Wow! The meteorologists were right!” exclaimed one of my colleagues. We abruptly headed to our cars so that we could get home before the snow got worse. But it was too late. The snowstorm caught us unprepared, crippling the city and its transportation systems. People were stranded for days in cars, at work, at school, and on buses. People abandoned their vehicles and walked miles in order to pick up their children or find a place that was warm and dry. Food and water became luxuries as getting to a store or finding an open restaurant proved an impossible task.
As I sat in my car for hours, wondering if I would make it home, I started to become anxious. And then I remembered the promises of the Good Shepherd who knows each one of us by name and all of our needs. Because we have a good shepherd who knows us and sacrifices his life for us, we “lack nothing” and we “fear no danger.” Our good shepherd is always with us.
The Author: Jasmine Rose Smothers (Georgia, USA)
Thought for the Day: The Lord is my good shepherd.
Prayer: Dear God, thank you for being our good shepherd and staying with us at all times. Amen.
Prayer focus: Those Stranded By Storms
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