Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Friday, July 23, 2021

Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand."¹

Our family loves going on road trips together. On one of our recent trips, we came across a good mile or so of all sheep! My kids were in love with these cute and fluffy animals, so much so that they wanted to bring one home (that didn't happen though)!

What we saw were flocks of sheep but, as Max Lucado points out, what the shepherd sees is a sheep—an individual sheep—and knows the characteristics of every one of his sheep. And, at least in New Testament times, the shepherd apparently knew each of his sheep by name.

When Jesus, the Good Shepherd, sees you and me in a crowd, he doesn't see the crowd. He sees every one of "his sheep" as individuals and knows each one of us by name. He knows our joys, our sorrows, our gains, our losses, our successes, our failures—and he loves each one of us devotedly. We are not a crowd to him. We are his individual children.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you that when I accept Jesus as my Savior, you know me by name, know everything about me, and always want the best for me because you care deeply about me and love me devotedly. Please help me always to remember that I am one of your special 'sheep' and love you devotedly too. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. John 10:27-28 (NKJV).

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