Taken from - http://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/harvestdaily/
“Simon Peter said, ‘I'm going fishing.’
“ ‘We'll come, too,’ they all said. So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night.” (John 21:3)
It was déjà vu time for the disciples. They had been fishing all night on the Sea of Galilee and hadn’t caught anything. The Lord had risen. He already had appeared to some of the disciples. There were no clear marching orders, so they thought they would go back to what they knew how to d fish.
Now it was early in the morning, probably still dark. They saw a figure standing on the shore. He called out, “Friends, have you caught any fish?”
Throughout the Bible, God often asked probing questions when He wanted a confession. In the same way, Jesus was asking His disciples, “Did you catch anything? Have you been successful? Have things gone the way you had hoped they would go? Are you satisfied?”
Why did Jesus want them to admit their failure? So He could bring them to the place where they needed to be.
When they cast the net on the right side of the boat, as Jesus told them to, their net became so heavy with fish that they couldn’t pull it in. The Lord was teaching the disciples an important lesson: Failure often can be the doorway to real success.
We need to come to that point in our lives as well. We need to come and say, “Lord, I am not satisfied with the way my life is going. I am tired of doing it my way. I want to do it your way.” If you will come to God like that, He will extend His forgiveness to you. Then He will take your life and transform it in ways you couldn’t imagine.
Copyright © 2008 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved
For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org .
4 comments:
10 posts in one day, might be a record. Also, please remember to check back a time or two to see if anyone has made a comment that requires encouragement or a response. You can feel pretty empty if you put yourself out there and no one pays attention. You guys are doing amazing, let's keep it up. There are 11 of us signed up for this blog, how amazing would it be if everyone posted?? Never happened since the numbers got over 6!!!!!!!
I know I pay lip service to this sentence a lot “Lord, I am not satisfied with the way my life is going. I am tired of doing it my way. I want to do it your way.”
So, the question is, how do we truly live it out???
cas
Tough one. It certainly ties in with letting go of control. I can imagine that most of you, like me, are at least somewhat worried about letting completely go. I will truly say that when I want to let go, its not that I don't trust God, I don't trust my interpretation of His suggestions. Did I get that right? Does he really just want me to walk across the street? I'm supposed to go talk to THAT guy? etc...
To be fair, those are my concerns when I'm REALLY ready to let go. There are far more days when I do as cas says, simply to pay it lip service. I tend to think that I, maybe some of you also, really am just asking God for a little help to get through this one day or one meeting, or one experiment, etc. Sometimes I think I don't want Him to lead my life, but just divinely intervene on my behalf at my whim. Sounds pretty egotistical to me.
Additionally, a wise man once said to me, "once God helps you through a situation like [that], the idea is not to get yourself in that position again". Since we are all creatures of habit, I believe that true change can only come from really relying on God. As to how we do that, I guess the only real metaphor I can think of is that God is having to toilet-train all of us as though we are 3 year olds, and we're too clenched and trying to be in control, and the only way to live His way is to relax your muscles, trust Him and let go.
crb
someone once asked me What drives you? my answer was fear of failure. some days i still think that is true. other days i know that i have learned from failures. i think that is the key - learning - not being so stubborn but rather being open minded to what God is teaching us even as we hit a dead end. sometimes, when things are bleak, i know i get so focused on improving the situation, that everything else - including God's will - gets blinded to me. sometimes, i just need to say OK God, what are you trying to show/teach me?
CRB, are you saying like going in your diaper?
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