My pastor used the analogy of sheep wandering around doing their own thing instead of following God's will. I almost laughed aloud when I thought about Nancy Shaw's children's book Sheep in a Jeep.
The sheep cannot make the Jeep go. All the sheep get out of the Jeep, not thinking that someone needs to be behind the wheel to steer once it starts going. The Jeep crashes into a mud puddle. The sheep then have to get the Jeep out of the mud. They push, pull, and use ropes in all different ways to get it out of the mud, only to crash again into a tree.
How often do we get stuck in the mud puddles of life and try to get ourselves out of the mud instead of going to God?
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. John 10:11
God wants us to trust him and have faith that he is greater than all our problems. He is the creator of all things. He knows what will happen in the future.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes; fear the LORD and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. Proverbs 3:5-8
When the sheep have no shepherd to guide them, they are scattered everywhere to their own things, following wishy-washy ideas that take them nowhere. The sheep with a righteous pastor who prays and seeks the Lord's face for guidance for his flock will lead the sheep, steering the Jeep past the mud puddles and trees of life.
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. Isaiah 40:11
Satan will come at us in sheep's clothing to distract us from our walk with God. So, while you are out there in the secular world trying to live a Christian life before you jump out of the Jeep to help push, you may want to make sure that the fellow sheep say "baa" and don't growl like a wolf pushing us into the muck and mire of this world.
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Matthew 7:15
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