“When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon Peter:” launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. (Luke 5:4)

Heavy eyelids and a weary expression revealed an exhausted, disappointed, and frustrated Peter. They had fished all night without catching a single fish. He pulled their two boats ashore and went to cleanse their nets. Gazing over the Sea of Galilee, one of the largest freshwater lakes in Northern Israel, Peter contemplated a new location and a different technique to try later that night. They would try again. He was determined to do everything he could, using all his knowledge to succeed this time. After all, this was his trade, and his entire livelihood depended on it.

But Jesus, who has been teaching the crowd, used Peter’s boat and later, when people were spiritually fed, he told him, “Launch out the boat into the deep…and cast down your nets.”. Hesitantly, with a few words of protest, Peter obeyed simply because Jesus told Him. Do something different Peter. Trust God with your tools, your life skills. Be bolder in your prayer for your children, love your spouse more deeply, rejoice louder, and sing a new song today. Step out of the ordinary. I can identify so much with Peter’s sanguine, extroverted and sometimes impatient temperament- doing what Jesus asked him to, all the while doubting and convinced it wouldn’t work. Yet, he threw the nets anyway, despite his doubts,and “knowing better”. But Christ knew far better, far deeper.

The results of him obeying, changed generation after generation, because of a different ending to that story. Peter did catch a multitude of fish, transforming his approach and knowledge of the Holy One, the omnipotent Christ. Humility followed awe and Peter committed himself as His disciple. God’s words sometimes are intended for the physical healing and the tangible results; to the man with a withered hand, he said ” Stretch out your hand’, to Gideon, ” By three hundred men who lapped I will save you”, to the paralytic,”take up your bed”. Other times, concerned with our souls, He calls us to “continue earnestly in your prayer”, “watch therefore for you don’t know the time and the hour”, “be the salt and light “, “do this in Remembrance of Me”, and “love one another”. Whatever was spoken, it was meant for obedience, for He knows that obedience is the secret to our victory. When we obey, Christ honors such faith, and the result is a multitude of fish, so heavy to pull out they feared their nets would break.From this comes a mixture of joy, awe and humility. Always humility! It is our response to God’s omnipotence and Peter expressed it before he could even count the fish. Before he would run and tell his family the income will continue to come. The Roman centurion did the same. He recognized the mighty presence of Christ and believed in His power, even before the healing of his servant took place. “Lord, I am not worthy…but only speak a word.”.( Matthew 8:8)

Nothing delights the heart of God more than a man or woman who dares to venture deeper and cast their nets for a catch, even if it’s the “wrong time”, and not the perfect place. Oh, how much He desires to see His children obeying in faith, even if it is a small measure of faith. It was prayer after prayer in which I asked God:”Will you heal me? “, “Do I need to go through the next treatment?”, “Why wouldn’t the wounds heal sooner?”, “How much longer, Lord?”  I believed Him when He spoke to me daily through His precious Word, encouraged me through words of prophesy and nightly dreams. Yet doubts crept in, belittling my little faith to the point of dissolving it, filling my mind with more and more questions, and blocking the ear that should have been obeying and trusting. Just as Peter knew his trade, I thought I knew better- or at least the medical team knew better.  So knowledgeable about what it meant- surrounded by cancer diagnosis, stages, statistics, clinical trials and recurrence scores, healthy and unhealthy food, ways to keep stress at bay and transform your nutrition. These are all good things and I am thankful for every medical professional God placed in my path. But it wasn’t the whole story. Like every cancer patient, I was saturated and overwhelmed by all the information. Yet the prayer and words of encouragement from my family and the church community strengthened my faith, until I could say: “Even if…, nonetheless, at Your word, Lord Jesus, I will launch out into the deep, and let go of everything that burdens me. All my fears of today, and ten years from now. I am casting down my nets. You are in charge, Lord. Yours are the fish of the deepest seas, yours are the years of my life, my Adi and my children are yours actually. I have nothing to lose, but everything to gain…You, and a peaceful heart. And healing in the end. The awe, the joy and the surrender are real and powerful.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me”. (John 15:4)