“For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.” (Ezekiel 34:11)
Notice the amazing truth contained in today’s verse: Our Lord Jesus Christ does not send someone out in His place to search for and look after His sheep. Oh no! The prophet Ezekiel was moved by the Spirit of God to tell us that the Lord Himself is the Sovereign, Seeking, Searching, Shepherd Savior. And He is all that for you. Is that not a word of cosmic comfort to you today, regardless of where this message finds you?
Notice something else contained within this text. Our salvation not only begins because of our Searching Savior, but it continues and is sustained because of our continually Searching Savior. No matter how often or how badly or how foolishly we wander away from our Savior, He chases us down and returns us to His sheepfold. Now, this does not happen when a certain number of His flock wander away. The parable of the Lost Sheep makes it perfectly clear that our Good Shepherd leaves the heard to go off and find one single lost sheep and brings him or her back to the fold. Christian, you matter that much to Jesus!
One final point: To be looked after by our Shepherd is to be locked securely into our salvation. Jesus told the crowd that followed Him, “This is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day” (John 6:39). Jesus will not lose a single sheep . . . and that includes you.
Is this not a powerful promise to plead if you realize that you have strayed from the sheepfold and from your Shepherd? It was for Peter. When Peter denied Jesus three times on the night our Lord was betrayed—when the rooster crowed, just as the Lord had said—Peter’s heart was broken for having wandered away from his Savior. But after the resurrection, Jesus restored Peter by asking a simple question—not once, but three times—“Do you truly love me?”
If your answer is the same as Peter’s—“Yes, Lord, you know that I love you”—then you can be assured that nothing can ever separate you from your Searching Savior. Let that truth set you free today and every day until you cross the Jordan and enter into your eternal rest.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 