Lake

[1] On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, [2] and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. [3] Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. [4] And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” [5] And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” [6] And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.
(Luke 5:1-6, ESV)

Sometimes it is easier for us to listen to a message to a large group of people. As we’re listening, we can decide whether the message is for us and whether we should change anything in our lives or not. We feel like we have some time to consider what we have heard, and how to respond.

But when Jesus directs a message to me personally, it could be a little bit uncomfortable, especially if what the Lord is addressing is an area that I have had some experience with already.

Before I can move into the next big thing that God wants to do with me, I may need to go through some basic steps that might even seem like a demotion.

I might think, “I have already done this and was quite successful. Why is God asking me to do it in a different way this time?” Or maybe even, “I tried that before, and it didn’t work!“

When I humble myself and agree to do things God’s way, it isn’t very long before I get to the same point that Simon did. When I am able to see how easy it is for Him to do what I thought was very difficult, I am in a good place to trust Him for the things that I believed were impossible.