17 May

• What is the best thing in life, bringing more joy, delight, and contentment, than anything else? Knowledge of God…
• What were you made for? To know God.
• What aim should you set yourself in life? To know God.

These are the questions J. I. Packer raises at the start of his influential book, Knowing God. Jesus said, ‘I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father’ (John 10:14).

Knowing and trusting God leads to:

• Soul-rest
  In the midst of all your fears and anxieties you can find peace: ‘My soul finds rest in God alone… Find rest, O my soul, in God alone’ (vv.1,5)
• Salvation
  Salvation comes by faith in God: ‘My salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation… My salvation and my honour depend on God’ (vv.1b–2a,7a)
• Security
  Everything else in life is uncertain, and ultimately insecure, but God ‘is my fortress, I shall never be shaken… he is my mighty rock, my refuge’ (vv.2b,6b–7b)

• Be assured of God’s love for you
  Jesus also contrasts the good shepherd with the ‘hired hand’ who, when the wolf attacked the flock, runs away because he cares nothing for the sheep (vv.12–13).
  
  On the other hand, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (vv.11,15). This is entirely voluntary: ‘The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord’ (vv.17–18). If you ever doubt that God loves you, you simply have to look at the cross: Jesus laid down his life for you.
  
  Jesus came to give his life on the cross to take away all the blocks that prevent you knowing and being in communion with God as your Father.
• Learn to listen to his voice
  It is in the instinctive nature of sheep to recognise the shepherd’s voice. ‘The sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice’ (vv.3–4).
  
  The more you get to know Jesus, the more you will get to discern whether it is his voice rather than the deceptive voice of the wolf.
• Know that you have eternal life
  The one you know not only dies for you but he also rises from the dead for you. He has the power to take his life again: ‘I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again’ (v.18b). He gives you eternal life.
  
  Jesus later defines eternal life like this: ‘Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent’ (17:3).

John 10:10

‘I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’