Footprints

Psalm 37:23 (NLT) The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.

I grew up in the Midwest at the base of Lake Michigan.  Winters there were cold and the snow was often deep.  I remember one winter when I was about 10 the snow was up to my waist.  My little sister was only 3 at the time.  In order for her to “play” in the snow she had to walk in the footprints my brother and I made. If she tried to go off the path we created she would get stuck or get lost as the snow was almost over her head.

The Psalmist tells us in Psalm 37:23 that the Lord directs the steps of the godly.  How often have we prayed something like this, “Father lead me today.”?  In this Psalm we see that God is already leading the way.  Our prayer should be more like, “Father help me to walk in your footprints today.” 

Why, if He is directing our path, is it so hard for us to follow in His footprints?

I once saw a mother duck swimming across a pond followed by her ducklings.  When she got to the shore she climbed out of the water and the ducklings did likewise, however, once on land one little duckling waddled slower than the rest.  I wanted to hurry him along behind his mother because on his own he was helpless.  As I watched, to my horror, a seagull swooped down and plucked that poor defenseless little thing up and began to fly away.  As it flew, other seagulls began to tear at the duckling trying to get it for themselves. 

I know this is an awful story; however, hold on and its importance will soon become clear. 

John 10:10 (NLT) The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

I want to dig into John 10:10 and evaluate the difference between the thief’s purpose and God’s purpose.  Here Jesus is speaking to his disciples.   These were men who lived, moved, and had their being with Christ.  They knew him better than anyone in that day outside of his mother.  What was he trying to tell them?

We cannot look at just John 10:10 but must look at it in the context of the entire passage, John 10:1-10.  In my Bible this passage is entitled: The Good Shepherd and His Sheep.

John 10:1-10 (NLT) “I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! 2 But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. 5 They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”

6 Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn’t understand what he meant, 7 so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. 9 Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. 10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”

Observations from John 10:1-9:                                                                                      

A. Jesus is the Good Shepherd.

If there is a good shepherd then there must be bad shepherds.  Jesus describes just such bad shepherds.

John 10:12-13 “A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to him and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. 13 The hired hand runs away because he’s working only for the money and doesn’t really care about the sheep.” (NLT)

The Word tells us that God will never leave us for forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6).  When the situations of life get hard our shepherd will not abandon us because He cares for His sheep!

B. Anyone who comes into the sheepfold by anyway other than the gate (Jesus) is a thief. 

There are many Bible teachers/preachers today.  We need to be careful to watch their fruit and see if they are truly speaking for God or if they are speaking for the enemy.  Knowing the Word is one way to ensure that we can identify those false teachers.  Spending time in prayer and listening to the voice of God will give us another tool for identifying such false teachers.  Anything which is said that does not align 100% with God’s Word is false!

C.  Jesus’ sheep know his voice.

In each of our lives there are many voices clambering for our attention. They can be the voice of a parent, spouse, child, friend, coworker, pastor, sibling, or even our own voice.  We can rest assured that one voice which speaks the loudest is the voice of the enemy.  His voice can come from without or within.  He loves to plant thoughts in our heads that sound so convincing that we often feel guilty for having them even when we don’t act on them. 

His voice can come from outside as well.  He is in the habit of using men to do his dirty work.  He even uses unsuspecting believers.  Have you ever just “lots it” and let someone “have it” with your words?  In that moment you were being used by the enemy to harm the other person and ultimately to harm yourself.  Trust me I am preaching to myself here as well.  I have done this more times than I care to remember.

We must learn to hear the voice of the Father and to distinguish it from the voices around us.  We do this in the same way we distinguish false teachers from godly teachers; we read, study, meditate on, and memorize the Word.  We pray and learn to listen to the voice of God.  We must weigh everything we hear on the scales of God’s Word.  Does it “balance out” with what we read in the Word?  If not, it is not of God!

D. The Shepherd leads the sheep.

David gives us a great picture of the Good Shepherd in Psalm 23.

Psalm 23:1-4 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

David is telling us that God will provide for all our needs.  He will take us into times of rest.  He will provide refreshing for our soul.  He will guide us in the right paths (it’s His reputation on the line).  Even when things get dark and the enemy presses in on every side we can rest in the comfort of his presence.  His rod can scoop us up when we fall down.  It can give us a nudge on the hind end when we are wandering off.  It can beat down the enemy when he is closing in on us. 

Throughout the history of mankind it has never been the shepherd who failed in leading the sheep.  He has always faithfully led the way; the issue has been on the part of the sheep.  We have failed over and over to follow in his footprints. This can be seen throughout the Bible and even in recent history.  Look at where our nation came from and where we are today.  It is not because God has not been leading, but rather, that we have not been following!

E. Sheep follow where the shepherd leads.

When a shepherd leads the sheep out of the sheepfold and into the pasture land the sheep are ready to go because they know food and water will be forthcoming.  They follow the shepherd because he has established a relationship with them and they know they can trust him.  He has “proven” himself, if you will.  

My question to us then is this: Who has proven Himself faithful and true more in the history of mankind than God?  No one!  Yet, even as believers we often find it difficult to follow His lead.  Why? 

Let’s look at John 10:10 to find the answer.

John 10:10 (NLT) The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

The answer is simple: The thief is out to steal, kill, and destroy.  We struggle to follow the Lord’s footprints because:

1. The enemy is constantly throwing roadblocks in our path.  We often have to swerve to miss obstacles he leaves in the way.  These may come in the form of:

a. Greener pastures (i.e. a person who treats us better than our spouse treats us).

b. Greater opportunities (i.e. a better paying job – even if the hours and longer and we have to miss church sometimes).

c. Greater fulfillment (i.e. our job/ministry might be moving slowly; we might not be seeing the results we want quickly enough so we look for another job/ministry where the dividends, so to speak, are more immediate (instant gratification)).

While this list is non-exhaustive by any means it gives us an idea of the kinds of road blocks the enemy throws in our path.

2. He tries to wipe out the footprints so we cannot see them. 

When rescuers are searching for someone who is lost in the woods, for example, they look for footprints, broken branches, pieces of hair, fabric, etc.  They are looking for anything that can reveal the direction the missing person traveled. 

We, like the rescuers, need to look for the footprints and clues the God leaves for us to follow.  These clues might be as simple as a rightly timed word from a caring friend.  They may include a prophetic word spoken over us.  They might even be our “intuition” or “gut-feeling.” 

The Holy Spirit will speak to us each in the manner in which we “hear” or learn best.  Some of us are visual learners and He might speak to us through dreams and visions or we might open the Word to read and a word or phrase might appear to jump off the page.

For the auditory learners among us He will use His still, small voice in our heart/mind.  Additionally, we might hear a sermon or teaching and the Lord emphasizes one particular part in our hearts and minds. 

For the kinesthetic learners He might mix it up and use both auditory and visual clues.  The clues might even be experiential. Some of them can even come from our everyday life experiences.    

The enemy, remember comes to steal; he tries to remove the footprints and clues, which leads us to the next point: distractions.

3. He sends distractions in our way every day. 

We know that many of the footprints and clues are found in the Word and through prayer.  If the enemy can distract us we might miss some of those footprints and clues.  Distractions come in many forms.  We must learn to keep a watch out for them.

Many distractions are external, originating from outside of us.  When we set aside time to spend in the Word and prayer the enemy will throw in major external distractions.  Maybe the doorbell will ring or someone will call, a member of our family will need our help at just that moment.  As we prepare to read or pray we will see the dirty dishes in the sink or the dirt on the floor.  The neighbor’s dogs will bark unceasingly.  These distractions are common.  There are things we cannot control that work to take our focus off of finding the footprints and clues. 

Some distractions are internal however.  These originate in our minds and we must learn to stop them in their tracks before they run away with us and cause us to miss the path.  If none of the external distractions work, the enemy will plant thoughts in our minds (sometimes we do this to ourselves without his help). We will remember something we need to say to our spouse or children or remember something we forgot to pick up from the store.  We will begin planning dinner or thinking about our date night.  We will think about a sick friend and wonder how he/she is feeling.  The list is limitless. 

I guarantee you that distractions will come the key is stopping them as soon as we recognize them.  How do we do this you might ask?  2 Corinthians 10:5 gives us the answer. “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” (NASB)

The task is two-fold:

1. We destroy everything that raises itself against the knowledge of God.  This is critical.  The way we stay in step with what God is doing and where He is leading is by knowing Him.  Hosea 4:6 says this, “My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me. (NLT)  We cannot possibly follow God’s leading and stay on course if we do not know Him.  We must stop the distractions or we will be destroyed by the enemy!

2. We take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.  We must make keep our thoughts focused on the task at hand, getting to know God more; hearing His voice and finding the footprints and clues He is laying out for us. 

I begin each of my quiet times (times of prayer and/or Bible reading – which may or may not be quiet J) with a pray inviting God to speak to me and shutting the enemy down before he can start.  James 4:7 tells us: So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (NLT)

This verse contains two promises we can hold onto.  First, when we humble ourselves before God, coming to Him in prayer or Bible study He will be there.  James 4:8a, “Come close to God, and God will come close to you.” (NLT)

Second, if we resist the devil he will flee.  Webster’s online Dictionary defines flee as: to run away from.  I want us to really look at this definition; to run away from. How often do we picture the devil running away from us?  Be honest.  I can’t say I’ve dwelt on it much, but James is telling us here that if we resist the devil, he will flee.  Why, because when we resist we are not resisting in our own strength. 

Zechariah 4:6b It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. (NLT)  When we resist it is really the power of the Holy Spirit resisting through us.  If we stay close to God, borrow His strength and resist, we can defeat the enemy every time.  I wanted that duckling to hurry up and get close to his mother because I knew that she could defend him from the seagulls.  What he lacked in his own strength and size, his Momma more than made up for.  With her at his side he was unstoppable.  The same holds true for us.  With God on our side; who? I ask, can stand against us? 

Finally, part of avoiding the distractions is keeping up the pace.  It is not only important to following in His footprints, but we need to stay close to Him as well.  We need to keep up with Him as He leads us. We cannot become complacent as we follow. Just like the duckling I watched, we are helpless without God.  We cannot defend ourselves from the attacks of the enemy any more than that little duckling could defend himself from the gull.   And like the duckling we will be plucked up and pecked at by the enemy if we wander away from the protection of our Father.  He will never leave us; however, far too often we walk away from Him to follow our own desires and lusts. 

We often get lazy or “busy” and fail to make/take the time to spend in His presence.  We begin to make excuses for why we miss church or Bible study groups. We begin to hang around friends from our past who are not believers (which could be fine if they are not our primary source of fellowship and we are not tempted to participate in sinful or compromising behavior while with them).  

Let’s all be honest here.  We find time to do what we want to do! We must desire intimacy with God more than anything else.  If we are to walk in His footsteps and keep on course we must spend time in His presence.  We must keep the pace and not fall back.  Stragglers are easy prey for the enemy!!