"When he had finished speaking, He said to Simon, "Put out into the deep
water and let down your nets for a catch." Simon answered and said, "Master,
we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and
let down the nets." When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity
of fish, and their nets began to break" (Luke 5:4-6 NAS).
Jesus had used Simon Peter's boat to speak to a very large crowd and it was
after this that he told Peter to go out to the deep to catch some fish.
Peter didn't have to do this. He could have made excuses and whined, saying
that they had been out all night and there were no fish out there. But it
was his submission that teaches us all a lesson. The results were amazing,
enough fish to fill two boats. This convinced the fisherman that Jesus was a
special man. Enough so that they gave up everything to follow Him.
Casting Crowns, a Christian musical group, has a song that speaks about
being in the middle between the deep and the shore. The shore is where we
were before we knew Jesus and the deep is where we give Him everything and
not live for what this world can give us. Sometimes we are in the middle,
not wanting to commit ourselves completely to Jesus, but yet not wanting to
go back to the very dark life we had before Christ. Peter is an inspiration
because he said, " I will do as you say." Just as Peter obeyed Jesus it is also time for us to let down our
nets into the deep and to trust God to use us in remarkable and amazing ways.
It is easy to sit in the middle, but that is not where we will benefit from
seeing how God can work in our lives when we surrender everything into His
hands. Jesus said that nothing is impossible with God. We limit ourselves
sometimes because we don't have enough faith to believe that God can still
do awesome things through us. God needs you to go to the deep, trust Him,
and do something amazing for Him in His name.
Dear God,
It is very tempting sometimes to stay in the middle, not committing
ourselves to fully be used by you. After all, when we are in the middle,
there are no expectations. Help us to go out into the deep because you want
us to learn that trusting you can bring us amazing results. Thank you for
giving us the courage to step out in faith knowing you will never leave us
or forsake us.
In Jesus' name,
Amen
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