Shoreline or Deep Water?

One of my favorites places to go is to the beach. I love everything about the beach. One of the things I enjoy is to walk 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 just love verse 5! It is my life verse.) In Luke 5:4 Jesus says this to Simon – “Put out into the deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Did you catch that? In believe Jesus called for Simon to venture out into the deep water and not simply play it safe, a few feet offshore. It is the same for us; our needs are met in the deep things of God, only found when we fully surrender and trust Him completely.

Let’s look at the Triune God this way – Father God is the initiator of our faith, Son Jesus is the implementer of our faith, and through the Holy Spirit, our faith becomes energized. The apostle Paul, in Ephesians 3, when praying for spiritual strength, prays this, “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (v.16).

That verse is Paul’s what and the three verses that follow are his why. Here is what we read – “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (vv.17-19).

And it is through going deep with 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! The Holy Spirit calls us to be fully submerged in His flowing water; the water of wisdom, healing, peace, comfort, restoration, and the list goes on and on.

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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