"For every small thing you do in baby faith, God meets you with multiplied results." (Crazy Faith p. 28, Michael Todd)
"Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin." (Zechariah 4:10)
"On the banks of Gennesaret Lake, a huge crowd, Jesus in the center of it, presses in to hear His message from God. Off to the side, fishermen, are washing their nets, leaving their boats unattended on the shore. Jesus gets into one of the boats and asks its owner, Simon, to push off and anchor a short distance from the beach. Jesus sits down and teaches the people standing on the beach. After speaking for awhile, Jesus speaks to Simon.
Jesus: "Move out into deeper water, and drop your nets to see what you'll catch."
Simon (perplexed): "Master, we've been fishing all night, and we haven't caught even a minnow. But ... all right, I'll do it if you say so."
Simon then gets his fellow fisherman to help him let down their nets, and to their surprise, the water is bubbling with thrashing fish - a huge school. The strands of their nets start snapping under the weight of the catch, so the crew shouts to the other boat to come out and and give them a hand. They start scooping fish out of the nets and into their boats, and before long, their boats are so full of fish they almost sink! Simon's fishing partners, James and John (Zebedee's sons), along with the rest of the fishermen, see this incredible haul of fish. They're all stunned by this, especially Simon. He comes close to Jesus and kneels in front of His knees.
Simon: "I can't take this, Lord. I'm a sinful man. You shouldn't be around the likes of me."
Jesus: "Don't be afraid Simon. From now on, I'll ask you to bring me people instead of fish."
The fishermen haul their fish-heavy boats to land, and they leave everything to follow Jesus."
(Luke 5:1-11)
This morning I was watching a tv series called The Chosen. It is a series all about Jesus and the people that he impacted during his time on Earth. The neat thing about this series is that it shows the story and miracles of Jesus from the perspective of the people that Jesus encountered. The episode I watched this morning was about Simon Peter and the other two disciples, James and John, who were out fishing on the boat. There were several deep theological ideas that were presented in this episode that really struck me. The first being how desperate Simon Peter was when he was out fishing on the boat. In the episode, Simon Peter had a lot of tax debt that he needed to pay to the Roman empire, and the deadline for settling his debt was coming quickly. He was out all night fishing, trying to catch something, anything that could be used to to pay off his debt. By the time morning rolled around, he was not only desperate, but he was also exhausted from trying to do everything in his own strength. He was discouraged and beaten down.
In the show, Peter saw Jesus teaching on the shore to a group of people. Jesus asked if he could use Peter's boat so that he could preach in a spot where people could hear him. While he was in the boat, he asked Peter to do two things. The first was to move their boats into the deeper water. This is fascinating to me, because I think we often want what God has for us without the work, the baby steps of faith, that he asks us to take to get where he is wanting us to go. Especially for those of us who have had deep heartache or have been greatly discouraged and beaten down like Peter was after a long night of fishing and no catch to show for it. By asking Peter to move his boat deeper into the water, Jesus is positioning Peter to receive the blessing that he desperately needs. This is Peter's first baby step of faith.
Which leads me to a question for you. What is it that you are desperately searching God for? Is God calling you out into the deep like Peter? Are you willing to take that baby step of faith of going deeper in relationship with God? Are you willing to do the spiritual work required to receive the blessing?
The second thing that Jesus asks Peter and his friends to do is to cast their nets out into the water ............ again. If you were Peter, you might think what he thought at that moment. You might think, "Lord, I have been casting out my net all night and I have not even caught one minnow." In other words, I have not seen what I was expecting to catch. I have thrown it in again and again, and each time I have caught nothing, and I have become more desperate because I don't know what to do on my own in this situation that I am in. And now you want me to not only go deeper, but you want me to cast my net ..... again????? If we were Peter, we might have thought that Jesus was crazy for suggesting that we fish again. But here is what is totally crazy and my favorite part about this story:
Peter does it anyways.
He goes deeper.
And he casts the net.
Again.
I am reading this book called Crazy Faith by a pastor named Michael Todd. In the book he says that baby steps such as the ones that Peter takes in faith leads to the crazy faith that each believer so desperately desires to have. He mentions in his book that crazy faith starts with the small steps of obedience that God calls us to do. And these small steps of obedience take crazy faith in and of themselves to step out in. Especially when they don't make any logical sense to us at all (by the way I love it when God takes things that confounds the wise and defies all human logic for his purposes of blessing his people and turning a situation of desperation and hardship into an opportunity to bring him glory and praise). There is a really profound quote that I would like to share from his book, "what seems crazy in one season will be counted as faith in another," (Michael Todd, Crazy Faith, p.16)
So the steps that Jesus is asking Peter to take, the steps that make absolutely no sense to him after a long night of fishing and catching nothing, seemed crazy in the present moment, until Peter actually took the steps. And once he took them, once he went deeper into the water, and once cast his net in obedience, his boat filled with so much fish that it almost sank! Not only does he get a boat full of fish, but the fish are filling and almost sinking James and John's boats also.
But the story doesn't end there.
In fact, for Peter, it is just the beginning.
Because Peter was willing to take the baby steps, his baby faith had grown and multiplied even greater. Not just for Peter, but it grew the faith of those around him as well. His debt was now paid for and he was set free to follow Jesus. And when Peter was obedient in faith, he was given his next assignment and calling, that was even greater than just fishing the rest of his days. Jesus called him and his friends to follow him and become fishers of men.
Peter, and the other fisherman dragged their boats to the shore, full to the brim with fish, and left everything to follow Jesus.
Can you imagine the testimony that was left there on the shore for all the people to see? They left their boats, with everything that represented their old lives, and left to follow Jesus with an entirely new purpose! They believed and obeyed, and their obedience in the small things multiplied their results and grew in their crazy faith.
I tell you this story because I am also learning how to step out baby steps of faith again. In places where I felt hopeless and desperate, I have decided to take small steps which have truly begun to rebuild and reconstruct my faith in areas that were torn down when I lost my mom. I never stopped hoping and believing in God, but I didn't really know how to get the healing my soul needed for a long time. I am still in process in this faith filled journey for healing, but I can tell you that I am indeed making progress. I have been seeking and searching God for a long while now, and going deeper as Peter did in the lake. I have come out of the dark night of hopelessness and desperation of the past year. I have entered into the morning, moved my boat to the deep, and now I have chosen to throw my net back into the water ......... again. Knowing that my small, sometimes crazy, faith steps will continue to grow into crazy faith, and that my small beginnings will bring multiplied results.
"What seems crazy in one season, will be counted as faith in another," (Michael Todd, p. 16).
Let me leave you with one last question:
What small, sometimes crazy, step is God asking you to take today?
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