There is a sense in which all shepherding can be described as a fight for the hearts of people.
It is not a fight on behalf of oneself. It is not a fight conducted in one’s own power. It is taking the God ordained weapons of our spiritual warfare and using those weapons to fight ON BEHALF OF GOD for the HEARTS OF PEOPLE in the interest of their SINCERE DEVOTION to God.
It is winning them for God.
It is winning them to Christ.
It is devoting them to Christ.
It is training them for Christ.
It is watching over them for Christ.
And that fight for the faithfulness of God’s people, is not just with outside foes.
It is often a fight with the sinfulness that threatens those same people within their own hearts.
Pastoring people often means appealing to people for the sake of their own soul, with truth of God’s Word, when you see they are going astray.