Nevertheless At Your Word... Luke 5:4-6

Luke 5:4-6 says,

“When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, 'Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.' But Simon answered and said to Him, 'Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.' And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. ”

So this was from my devotions this morning and I couldn't stop going back to it. I love Peter's response. It just makes me think of how often I don't trust God and I think that I know better. Simon Peter was a fisherman. He knew what He was doing and He had been trying to catch all night. Jesus' request probably sounded ridiculous. My thoughts most likely would have been, “Doesn't He realize that I have tried that already? He has no idea what He's talking about. Doesn't He know that this is my job?” But no. His response was nothing like that. As far as we know, he barely knew Jesus, but he trusted Him anyways.  He recognized Jesus as authority when he called Him Master. Instead of being prideful and thinking that he knew everything, he humbled himself and obeyed. And his faith did not go unrewarded. Not only did they catch fish but they caught so much that the net was breaking and in the following verses it talks about how they filled 2 boats with so much that they started to sink! How incredible is that!

Okay, so in life, sometimes what God tells me to do doesn't make any sense to me. I forget that He sees the finished tapestry and I only see a bunch of tangled strings. So many times, my response is, “Lord, I have my own plans and I really like them and I would rather not follow yours.” Or ,”God I am really comfortable where I am and I don't want to experience change.” In November of 2013, my response was, “Lord, I know that you have called me to IGNITE in Guatemala, but I'm comfortable in California with my job and housing situation and not having to stretch or change and following You will take faith and trust because I don't have the funds to go so instead, I'm not going to obey you and I'm going to stay put.” I can honestly say that that this decision not to follow God's plans caused so much heartache in the year and a half that followed and if I could go back in time I would change it. But I also know that finally deciding to obey in January of this year, because I felt like I had no other option, has led to more blessing than I could ever imagine. That obedience has led to so much more grace, forgiveness, love and provision than I ever expected to receive. I wish that I would have chosen to obey when I was first called to it instead of waiting until I was so deep in a hole of sin that obeying was my last option. But I am so grateful because I have still been abundantly blessed even though I was so slow to obedience. I pray that in the future, my response will be,”Nevertheless at Your word, Lord,” from the beginning. 

My application for this week is to write, “Nevertheless at Your word,” on my wall so that I have a reminder of what my response to God's calling needs to be.