I Will Do As You Say: Part 5

        “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,”…..

This is where we ALL can identify: “Lord, I have tried and tried and worked HARD and have NOTHING to show for it,” we cry out with emotions of irritation, frustration, and feelings of hopelessness and failure.

 (All of us moms complain, “I have worked exhaustingly at this mom thing and being a keeper of my home, and my house is still a mess and my work is never done!) 

“I have worked hard to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh, to be who I want to be, and I have failed,
                                           and I’m DONE!!”

And then He asks us to do something that we’ve tried and failed at—and have nothing to show for all the trying so it really makes NO sense!

 Jesus is asking Simon Peter to do something here that is against his common sense, and Peter could have stopped there in his statement and missed the miracle.  

Ponder that. How many times have we stopped at that point, looking only at our previous failures and how hard we have labored unsuccessfully, given up, and missed the miracle? Let us not stop there, looking only at ourselves!  Let us look to Him, fix our eyes on Him, the author and perfector of our faith!

Peter continued.... “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing,

               BUT I will do as You say and let down the nets.”

Here’s the big contrast: “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing,

BUT at YOUR bidding (word), literally ‘on the ground of Your Word’,                                           

   I WILL…..

There’s a huge difference (and a difference in outcome) here between 

                         1) ME trying really hard to do something-(walking in my flesh)

                  And 2) OBEYING GOD, in intimacy with Christ and listening to Him, Who then puts the power of the Holy Spirit into the equation- (walking by the Spirit).  He works through me! And HE WORKS! 

[There is also the issue that we cannot call Him Master and refuse to do what He says.]

   

 What have you tried and God is asking again and you’re saying, ‘I can’t. Lord, don’t you see 'it’s not working'?’  Will you continue that statement with, “but at Your bidding, I will…..”

“‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.”  Zechariah 4:6

Will you respond, not with a, “Who am I? I can’t”, but with a, “Here am I. Send me.” _{Isaiah 6:8}