Sometimes it is really difficult to approach God. So many people seem to have an idea of what a Christian is, or what their God wants them to be, and they try to live up to that idea. They perform and pretend, and hope that they are acceptable–meanwhile they are missing out on a genuine relationship with God. We hear that Jesus is coming to visit–He’s knocking on the door! And we run around like maniacs cleaning up the front room. ”Just a minute, Jesus–I’ll be right there!” and we shove things in the closet. We don’t get it that Jesus is there to help us clean up our house.
I could not begin to have a genuine relationship with Jesus until I began to see myself as the little lost sheep and Jesus as the Good Shepherd. I had, by my own efforts, gotten myself so lost. I could not save myself. I had no strength. I couldn’t be anything other than what I was; and that was not enough. I could no longer pretend that I was able to fix myself. A woman at a retreat gave me a wonderful picture of the Good Shepherd coming to save a sheep perched on a precipice. The picture was my story! And the Shepherd was coming! I wept over that picture; and began to hope. Then I found a wonderful book by Phillip Keller, which had four of his bestselling works in one volume. One of them was “A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23″. Another one was “A Shepherd Looks at the Good Shepherd and His Sheep”. This book was tremendously helpful to me. I’m a sheep–that’s what I am. He’s the Shepherd–that’s what He is. I belong to Him. He takes care of me. This works.