Deep Waters
One of my favorites places to go is to the beach. I love everything about the beach. One of the things I enjoy is walking ankle deep along the shoreline. There is something about feeling the sand squish between my toes and the water washing over my feet that so safe and relaxing. But, I also enjoy getting into the water, going much deeper than just ankle deep, and playing in the waves, while still having a healthy respect for the power and danger of the ocean.
Just as some people at the beach only dip their toes in the water, never wanting to get fully wet, it is often the same way in our relationship with God. We only want to get a little wet rather than jump in and out of the waves, getting completely wet. God calls us to be fully surrendered, fully committed, fully wet, all in.
Today I want us to look at a verse in the middle of the story of Jesus calling His first disciples. This verse is Jesus’ invitation to Simon to go against what makes no sense and go all in with Him. I encourage you to read this story, found in Luke 5:1-11. (I love verse 5!) In Luke 5:4 Jesus says this to Simon – “Put out into the deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Simon would never have gone into the deep water in the heat of the day. That simply defied fishing common sense. If the fish were not biting in the cool of the night, when fishing was usually at its best, why would they be biting in the heat of the day? But it was in that place of “going deep” that Jesus showed Simon the miracle of “such a large catch of fish that the nets began to break” (5:6).
As it was with Simon, Jesus calls us away from the safety of shallow waters and into the deep. I have found in my own life that it is in the “deep” water where I find the strength (Psalm 28:7; Philippians 4:13) needed to step out and say “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets” (5:5).
Faith is initiated by God the Father. It is implemented through his Son, Jesus. And by Holy Spirit we see our faith energized. It is by the Holy Spirit that we can fully lose ourselves and find all that God has for us. The deep waters of the Holy Spirit are always accessible to us because they are always flowing. Ezekiel gives us a beautiful picture of this constantly flowing river, one that begins like a small stream but the more we “jump in” the deeper it gets, and the more we get of the Holy Spirit’s work. Ezekiel 47:1-5 is a prophesy about the healing and restoration brought by God’s Spirit In verse 1 Ezekiel sees “the water was coming down from underneath the temple’s south side.”
In subsequent verses, each time its depth gets measured, the water goes from a trickle (v.2) to ankle deep (v.3) to knee deep then waist deep (v.4), and finally in verse 5 we read, “but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water has risen and was deep enough to swim in – a river no one could cross.”
Today Jesus is calling you to put out into deep water. Is that scary? Absolutely it is! We are challenged to be fully submerged in His flowing water; the water of wisdom, healing, peace, comfort, restoration, reconciliation, and so much more.
So, I ask you – Are you all in, finding yourself in the deepest parts of the ocean or are you only ankle deep at the shoreline playing it safe?
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