the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Bowen's Daily Meditations
’’ I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep." - John 10:14,
Thou art indeed the good shepherd; but we must acknowledge that there often appears in us something that looks very much like a denial of this truth. Believing thee to be the good shepherd, why are we sometimes so slow to follow thee? Why do we ever doubt that thy commandments are better than our own conceits? Why murmur at the ruggedness of thy path? Why look with wistful eyes at the pastures which thou forbiddest? We name thee the good shepherd; but is there not some hypocrisy in the joy with which we do it? The words are familiar to our lips; but our lives bear an ambiguous testimony.
If an enemy should overcome us, take away our armor in which we trusted, and command us to follow him; fear might constrain us to do so; but we should take every opportunity of lagging behind; we should follow afar off; we should be ever glancing to the right hand and to the left in search of some solace; we should go as far as we dared in by-paths; we should look wistfully to the sunny fields of liberty in the distance; we should go slowly when our enemy called; we should do sullenly what he commanded. Has Christ any such disciples? Will he trouble himself long with those who cleave to him chiefly through fear? These are the greatest reproach to him. They stigmatize him fearfully. Whatever their mouth may say, their conduct asserts him to be the bad shepherd.
Let me honor thee, Lord, and in all my ways proclaim thee the good shepherd, by doing cheerfully all thy will, not setting aside those precepts of the Gospel that have fallen into disuse in the Church, but ever acting upon the conviction that each jot and tittle of what thou hast uttered has a relation to my well-being as intimate as the breath that visits my lungs Whatever others may do, let me not pretend to know myself better than thou knowest me; by supposing that thou hast overrated my capacity in the tasks thou hast assigned, or underrated my necessity in the good things thou hast bestowed, or ignored my urgency when the answer to prayer is long delayed.
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