Reflections Devotional                 "You Are Saved Enough"  

In a popular method of evangelism, the preacher might say something like this: “Perhaps you’ve been baptized, but are you sure you’re saved? Was your confession genuine enough? Did you understand it enough? If you died tonight, are you sure you would go to heaven and not hell?”

Some churches seem to specialize in rebaptizing people. The seeds of doubt sowed by some evangelists become a harvest of rededications of faith.

In today’s text, Jesus is asked to declare once and for all, without doubt or ambiguity, that he is the Messiah. He answers the challenge by declaring that his flock knows the sound of his voice. “My sheep hear my voice,” he says. “I know them, and they follow me…. No one will snatch them out of my hand" (vv. 27-28).

Jesus doesn’t care if we say all the “right” words and have all the “right” answers. Instead, he asks us, “Do you know my voice? Do you recognize me? Are you willing to follow me?” 

The next time you start to doubt that you could ever be good enough or clever enough or saved enough, stop and listen. Listen for
Jesus’s voice. Hear him, and recognize him for who he is: the shepherd who cradles you in his arms and will not let anything take you away from him.