Finding
Nemo
“And
when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their
net was breaking. So they signalled to their partners in the other boat
to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that
they began to sink.” (Luke 5:6-7)
In the 2003 Disney/Pixar movie Finding Nemo, a father fish searches
the ocean for his lost son. While the movie is about something fishy,
the Bible has an even better story about how to find fish. After a night
of finding no fish, Jesus told Simon Peter to “launch out into
the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” (Luke 5:4) Peter
replied, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught anything;
nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” ( Luke 5:5)
Peter surrendered to Jesus, but only partially because he only used
one net instead of all his nets. Nevertheless, the catch of fish with
just one net was net-breaking and boat-sinking. Peter could have caught
a lot more fish had he used all the nets at his disposal as Jesus told
him to.
Surrendering to
God means complete and total obedience to His Word. It isn’t passive
resignation or fatalism, and it’s not accepting the status quo.
Actually, it may mean sacrificing ourselves and mastering our pride
and ego in order to change what needs to be changed because God only
calls surrendered people to do battle on His behalf. When we surrender
all that we have to God, He in turns give us all that He has, and since
we don’t have much compared to God, it really pays to surrender.
Surrendering is demonstrated by total and immediate obedience to the
Word of God. Peter limited his catch of fish by his partial obedience
of using just one net because there were enough fish to break all his
nets. Surrendering is saying, “Yes, Lord” to whatever God
asks of us. To say, “No, Lord” is a contradiction, because
we can’t call Jesus “Lord,” and then refuse to obey Him.
Surrendered people obey God and go Full Throttle even when it doesn’t
make sense, and the rewards are incredible and awesome. Abraham followed
the call of God without knowing where it would take him. Hannah waited
on God’s timing without knowing when she will have children. Joseph
trusted God’s purpose without knowing why things happened the way
they did. Mary believed in the miracle birth even though she was Like
a Virgin.
We know when we’re
fully surrendered when we can rely on God to work things out instead of
trying to manipulate others, force our own agenda, or control the situation.
We simply let go and let God, and instead of finding Nemo, we’ll
find all the fish we can ever want with a net-breaking, boat-sinking catch
if we just trust and obey.
Copyright © 2003 Eddy
Ministries.
All rights reserved.
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