Social Distancing What is Following You?

Social Distancing

What is Following You?

There are people who live very peaceful lives

They are gentle and kind

Surely goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life

 They trust the Good Shepherd to care for them

While some of us are like sheep, others are like wolves

The attitude of a wolf is aggressive and threating

Barking and yelling is the way they relate

Trouble and hate follow them all the days of their lives

What is following you?

Goodness and love and peacefulness

Or

Evil and hate and unrest

Are the people who follow you at peace, unthreatened around you?

Sheep are meant to eat grass, not meat

What is Following You?

I can’t seem to get over Psalms 23:6…

Surely goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life

This verse is so real in my life.

I am the guy who catches every red light.

Who makes simple mistakes

that cost me big time.

But where ever I go there

are two guys following me…

Goodness and Love

It is easy to spot people

who have these two followers.

They are people who are like sheep.

Sheep are generally gentile.

They are not aggressive like wolves.

Think about the animal kingdom…

There are some animals you enjoy

getting close to and some you fear.

People are the same.

Some people stir up trouble

where ever they go.

Trouble seems to follow them.

If you look at their attitude about life,

 you can see why trouble follows.

Like a wolf or some other aggressive

animal, they like to show their dominance.

Barking and yelling does

not draw cheerful followers.

Sadly, too many of us grow up

with wolf like aggressiveness.

We use the threat of fear to motivate.

And goodness and love is

replaced with evil and hate.

Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 10:16…

I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.

Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

There are people you just love to be around.

Why?

Because they come across

like a gentle, innocent dove.

Their shrewdness, wisdom is thoughtful,

discreet implying a cautious character.

Bottom line is they are harmless,

they are innocent of harmful motives.

They genuinely care about others.

Proverbs 15:1 shows the contrast…

 

A gentle answer turns away wrath,

but a harsh word stirs up anger.

People who are like lambs trust

the Good Shepherd to care for them.

Jesus reminds us that the Good Shepherd

does not run when the wolf comes.

John 10:12-13

They know vengeance is the

Lord’s and He will repay.

Do you find arguments are frequent in your life?

Are you being followed by troubling situations?

Does it seem you have to force life to go your way?

Then maybe you need to be more like a lamb.

We have all heard the phrase…

Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.

If you want more goodness and love to follow you…

Trust the Good Shepherd

and become gentle as a lamb.

Be innocent of agendas and self-serving motives.

Sheep under the direction of the

Good Shepherd are peace makers.

James sums it up this way…

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition,

there you find disorder and every evil practice.

But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

James 3:13-18

Surely goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life.

Scripture Reading

Psalms 23 NIV

23:1 A psalm of David.

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

3 he restores my soul.

He guides me in paths of righteousness

for his name's sake.

4 Even though I walk

through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD

forever.