Harvest Daily 11/11/04
Harvest Daily Devotional
by Pastor Greg Laurie
November 11
He Restores My Soul
"If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray." - Matthew 18:12-13
A shepherd looks out for the welfare of his sheep. He leads them to green pastures and takes them beside still waters. But in spite of all his tender care and good intentions, the sheep have a trait that truly resembles people. Sheep tend to go astray. As the Scripture says, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way . . ." (Isaiah 53:6).
Now it would seem that anyone under the care of the Good Shepherd would never go astray or need restoration. But sadly that is not the case. You see, sheep are incredibly stupid. And people are that way too. For example, why do we run from God? Why do we disregard His plan for our life? You know it's amazing. We will break God's commandments and ignore His Word. Then when we begin to reap what we sow, we will actually get angry at God for a spiritual valley that we created ourselves.
The good news is that the Bible speaks of how God will restore us. Psalm 23:3 says "He restores my soul." Do you need restoration? Maybe you have strayed into sin or gotten yourself into trouble. Perhaps you have this image that God is going to hunt you down and punish you for what you have done. But God loves you and misses you. Just as Jesus told the story of the shepherd who left the 99 sheep to go after that one stray sheep, God is seeking you out, wanting to put you back on your feet.
If you need restoration, don't be afraid to turn to the Good Shepherd today.
Copyright (c) 2004 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright (c) 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Bible text from the New King James Version is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Attn: Bible Rights and Permissions, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, TN 37214-1000.
