"Put out into the deep." Luke 5:4
With obedience, comes blessing. Jesus said to Simon, "Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch." Now Simon and his companions had been fishing all night and had caught nothing, but Simon knew Jesus just enough to obey. "At Your bidding, I will go out and try again." So they left for deeper waters, let down their nets, and caught so much fish that their nets began to break!
When I read these words of Jesus, I always think of my youngest sister Tina. God gave these instructions to her when she was discerning whom to marry. She really had to go into deeper waters because the man God chose for her lived so far away. Here she lived a protected and pampered life. She was surrounded by family, friends, brothers and sisters in our Christian community. She was busy with her work, and her service to street children. She lived in a big home, with helpers to cook and clean and wash. But God wanted her to leave all that, and go to a strange land, with no one to support her but her new husband and his friends. She had to learn a new language, and she had to learn how to cook!
When we visited Tina and her husband Pat in their little apartment last July, I could tell they were very happy. Indeed the rewards of obedience far outweigh what we have to give up when we follow what God wants us to do. "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock." (Matthew 7:24)
