Deeper!

Then Jesus said, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets. And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish.” Luke 5:4,6

Our PaPa and Ida had a beautiful cove lake house on the river when I was growing up. They would usually end each day by motoring on their boat out a little way from shore and catch a mess of bream. The fish were a really nice size, and just big enough to clean, fry with some hushpuppies, and enjoy for our supper. Instead of taking me with them in the boat, PaPa routinely stationed me on the end of the dock to fish because he didn’t want a novice ruining his special places. The fish he brought in were always bigger than the ones I could catch from shore. When I complained about never catching fish as big as he did, he admitted “the deeper you fish, the larger the fish”.

I think God works like that. The deeper we go in our faith, the bigger the rewards. Everything we do to cultivate a deeper walk with God and a deeper relationship with others and our family produces bigger rewards. Take for instance parents that put their children to bed with a routine that includes prayers and time together. Parents might not really know what they are doing while they are doing it, but it’s more than a routine, it’s building a family.

In order to go deeper, the first thing you need is “Jesus in your boat”. When Peter invited Him in, he caught more fish than ever before. Jesus will bless anything you give Him, and that will eliminate our fear of failure and worries about the results. Use Jesus in your boat of life to go deeper, and He will give you everything you need.

We can go deeper by giving Him our career. Too often we think we can separate our secular life from our spiritual life, but this prevents God from blessing our business or job. God is the CEO of the universe, and He promises we will prosper and succeed if we invite him to be our partner.

Go deeper by cooperating with God’s plan for our lives. Sometimes our own plan has to fail before we are willing to accept God’s plan for our lives. Instead of letting our own feelings control us, we should exercise faith in the promise of Christ. The results will be amazing!

We should go deeper in our relationships and treatment of others. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Matthew 7:12) has been largely ignored in this day and time. A kind word of love or acceptance goes so much further than disrespect or anger ever can. Many times those kind words offer hope to those who desperately need it and bridge the gap of anger and despair.

Finally, go deeper by standing on God’s promises. When we get God’s presence in our boat, His plan in our head, and His promises in our heart, we can’t fail. Start expecting God to act, and His promises will put new hope in our situation.

If we go deeper with God, there will be risks involved. Sometimes we think God has asked us to go too deep and we are content to stay in the shallow water, but we will miss out on so much! If we let His presence guide us, we will be blessed beyond our wildest dreams!

If we obey God in the small stuff of life, He takes us deeper and gives us bigger and better things. There’s only one thing to do when the reservoir of life is dry and shallow, build on His foundation and go deeper!