Chapter 1 A Consecrated Life - Far Eastern Bible College

elievers are sometimes reluctant to forsake all and follow the Lord is
that they are afraid of the risk involved. We are worried about what our
future will be like if we were to just step out in faith like Abraham, not
knowing exactly where we are going. The uncertainty of just trusting in
God brings the unsettling feeling that we are no longer in control of our
lives, and we don’t know where this path will lead us. It is like driving
along a road at night where there are no street lights and the car
headlights are not working. We can’t see what is in front of us. We don’t
know what is going to happen and that worries us.
But when the Lord calls us to follow Him, He says to us: “Don’t
worry my child, just trust Me, I know where the road leads and that is
enough for you: just follow Me.” And the amazing thing is that when
we do obey the Lord and trust Him to lead us, we find that everything
works out perfectly well. We find that all things do work together for
good to them that love God (Rom 8:28). We even experience great and
wonderful blessings that we never expected. That was what the
fishermen in our passage found when they trusted and obeyed the Lord.
In verse 4, Christ gave them a command to obey: “Launch out into
the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.” Now this command
would not have seemed to be unreasonable to Simon and his partners
had it not been for the fact that this was what they had just spent the
whole night doing! And so in their minds, they were expecting the same
results as before—no fish. Now they were tired, they were weary and
they were naturally afraid to waste more time and energy on more futile
work. Would they be willing to launch out again into the deep sea at
Christ’s command? What if they failed to catch anything again?
This was the moment when they had to overcome their fear of
failure by trusting in Christ’s command, not knowing what was going to
happen. Look at what Peter said in verse 5, “Master, we have toiled all
the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let
down the net.” And so with Jesus sitting in the boat, Peter and probably
Andrew sailed the boat out into the deep and cast the fishing net into the
water.
They were willing to stake everything on the Word of Christ. Would
you be willing to do the same? Are you willing to take the Lord at His
Forsake All and Follow Christ
103