Have you ever felt like sometimes, there are things in life that you just cannot break away from? That you just cannot fix or glue back together?<\/p>\n
Like today when I was trying to fix my printer, it just wouldn\u2019t work. Printers smell fear \u2013 they know when you need them the most and choose not to work. So I just gave up and said I\u2019ll try again another day.<\/p>\n
One song that I\u2019ve been loving currently is \u201cOceans\u201d by Hillsong. Part of the lyrics go something like:
\n\u201cSpirit lead me where my trust is without borders
\nLet me walk upon the waters
\nWherever You would call me
\nTake me deeper than my feet could ever wander
\nAnd my faith will be made stronger In the presence of my Savior\u201d<\/p>\n
And, I can\u2019t help but repeat this over and over in my mind. It kind of reminds me of that story in the bible where Jesus tells Simon to cast his nets out at the deep waters, despite having not caught anything all day.<\/p>\n
You can imagine, after a whole day of empty nets, Simon must have been feeling pretty bad. However, when Jesus asked him to lower the nets one more time, he obeyed. And when he did, his nets were FILLED with fish \u2013 so many fish that they needed help from other boats nearby.<\/p>\n
Moral of the story? Uh\u2026\u201dBe fishers of men\u201d?? \u2026That\u2019s what we hear in church right? \u201c\u6210\u4e3a\u4eba\u7684\u6e14\u592b\u201d Hmm\u2026that seems to be what is preached to us in church whenever this story comes up. But thinking about it last night, that\u2019s not what it shows me.<\/p>\n
For me, it\u2019s the notion of casting your net into the deep waters. To go into the deep waters was Jesus asking Simon to do something different. Don\u2019t fish in the shallow waters\u2026 rather, go further.<\/p>\n
I sympathize with Simon sometimes. Honestly you\u2019ve been out fishing all day, caught nothing at all! You\u2019re gonna feel really fed up right? I would feel pretty frustrated\u2026I mean putting in effort for the whole day without reaping anything in return?!<\/p>\n
C\u2019mon. A lot of times life can seem like too much, hey? How many times have you tried, but just never hit the mark? Studying for exams, getting a job, getting a promotion, or even just trying to deal with a difficult person? How about an addiction or trying to overcome your own negative thoughts?<\/p>\n
There have been so many times in life where I\u2019ve just felt I was casting never-ending nets, but getting nothing in return. Nets like perfection, letting negative thoughts determine your self-worth, trying too hard to please others\u2026all that.<\/p>\n
Net after net\u2026I\u2019d get nothing in return. The only thing I got were the scars from trying so hard to forcibly cast and pull in those empty nets. The more I cast them, the more they hurt to reel in.<\/p>\n
Sigh. So what did I have to do\u2026try casting my nets into deeper waters, just like Simon did.<\/p>\n
In order for me to gain what I truly wanted, I had to do it a different way \u2013I had to cast my nets into deeper waters. And that\u2019s scary. For me, to cast my nets into deeper waters means to surrender. And let me tell you that was something so hard for me to do, as I\u2019m sure it is for many of you.<\/p>\n
To surrender is not easy. To go into deeper waters isn\u2019t easy either. Like the lyrics say \u201cSpirit lead me where my trust is without borders.\u201d And, \u201cTake me deeper than my feet could ever wander, and my faith will be made stronger in the presence of my savior.\u201d<\/p>\n
That. Going into deeper waters is not easy, but through it your faith will be made stronger, in the PRESENCE of my savior.<\/p>\n
Even though Jesus is telling you to cast your nets into deeper waters, He isn\u2019t going to sit back on the shore and watch you do it alone! When Jesus told Simon to go into deeper waters, He was on the boat with him. Jesus went out to the deeper waters, He helped catch those fish. Together.<\/p>\n
Just like when you choose to cast your nets onto the deeper waters, you\u2019re not going alone. Jesus will walk with you every step of the way. There\u2019ll be so many fish for you to catch once you do.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s something in your life that you can\u2019t seem to fix? Something that seems\u2026just a bit off no matter how many times you try to fix it? Maybe it\u2019s time to cast your nets into deeper waters?<\/p>\n
Tiff, currently studying in Australia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you ever felt like sometimes, there are things in life that you just cannot break away from? That you just cannot fix or glue back together? Like today when I was trying to fix my printer, it just wouldn\u2019t work. Printers smell fear \u2013 they know when you need them the most and choose […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,225,10],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25950"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}