John 13:6-9 tells of the time when Jesus washed the disciple’s feet. The scripture says when He got to Peter, Peter said to Him, “Lord Thou shall never wash my feet.” Peter didn’t understand what the Lord was doing. He wanted the Lord to know things were backwards. Peter thought he should be the one washing the Lord’s feet.
The Lord told Peter that he would understand fully what was happening sometime in the future. Things just didn’t make sense to Peter. Why was the Lord Himself washing their feet? Today, we have enough things that don’t make sense to us. It is a big thing when the Lord asks us to do something, and we can’t make sense of it either.
Peter had a habit of not making sense of what the Lord was asking him. Once, when Peter and his friends were fishing, Jesus got into Peter’s boat and taught the people who were on the shore of the sea of Galilee. Luke 5:4-5 says, “Now when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, ‘launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch.’”
Peter responded by telling the Lord they had fished all night and caught nothing. “But since You asked,” Peter said, “I will do it.” Peter was saying, “Lord, I just want You to know the fish are not biting today.” Well, Peter and his friends caught more fish than they could handle. Their nets were full to the point of breaking.
Peter was a fisherman by trade. He had probably been trained by his father and learned much from his own experiences. Nevertheless, after fishing all night using all his skills, he had caught nothing. We are much like Peter today. We must learn to stop using our skills to limit what the Lord can do with our obedience.
If you want to experience the fullness of life that God promises, you must learn to live each day in response to His word more than by your skills and experiences. I am sure we have, at one time or another, started something we couldn’t finish the way we’d like. We have gotten ourselves into some things we later needed help in getting out of.
Sometimes our skills and experiences will let us get into some things, but those same skills and experiences cannot free us from those things. Jesus told Simon launch out into the deep and let down his nets for a catch. We must learn that with the Lord we will always be asked to launch out far and deep from our own experiences and skills if we are to experience His power.
Peter, after having failed on his own, took Jesus at His word. Many of us live powerless lives today as Believers because we try things first on our own instead of taking Christ at His word. God does not fail at anything He starts. So, when His word says to us to launch your life out into the deep, you must say, “Yes Lord, I will.”
We must get away from the shallow comforts of life where we can control all things ourselves. It is in the deeps of life where our faith, our dependence, and our service to God and others are founded and strengthened.
The Lord may ask you to stand in the shallows and do His work. That would make sense if you didn’t have a boat to go deeper. But the people He wants to help through you may be out a little deeper in the water. To help them, you must be willing to leave the comforts of the shallows and depend on Him to get you through the deep things of life.
With the Lord, we are never in over our heads with anything. So, praise Him today, and ask Him to help you to be ready to launch your life wherever He wants you to live. It may not make sense to you now, but in time it will.
The Lord shares enough for us at the time to see if we can be obedient to the things we understand, we should also be obedient to the things we do not understand. If it comes from God, it makes sense to obey what we do not understand. In doing that, He helps us make a great catch while others just toil in their own efforts.
To the believer, that makes all the sense in the world.
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