Letting Down Your Net! Part 1
Come on, let down that Net!
This topic is one of those that may sound absurd, especially when taking it from what it means. However, I want to talk about it from a different perspective.
In Luke 5: 4-11 Jesus asked Simon Peter to let down his net, Simon Peter was then trying to justify why he couldn’t let it down, and why it was of no use to do that. To Peter, the net signifies his profession, his career, his talent, his skills. He was such an expert at what he does that he thinks no one can tell him otherwise. He tries to explain in other words that he knows the job and he’s been doing it for years. He has gone through the storms, the waves, the tempestuous seas and oceans, and experienced what it is like letting down those nets in such situations. It was risky, life threatening and dangerous letting down the nets in those circumstances where there is a possibility of either catching nothing or getting the wrong things in the net.
Letting down your net in trouble waters can be unpredictable because the results of that action manifest after the net is hauled back up to yourself for a closer view.
After the hesitant, Peter ended up letting down his nets. He has just forgotten that this is not the same old Peter talking himself into letting those nets, but rather the Master of the oceans, the King of the storms, the One who knows all situations and holds the key to every answer. He realised the One who is asking him to let it down knows better than him.
The net for you and I can be anything we hold dear to our hearts and not wanting to let go. It can be a profession, a career, a habit or a way of life that we regard so comfortable, and will do anything to preserve and protect. We will defend it at all cost because it has become part of us and we think no one can tell us how to go about it. It becomes a struggle to let go when the command comes asking us to do so. But you know what, sometimes the very thing we are fighting to protect becomes the hindrance to our blessings and deliverance. Maybe it is because of self-protection that is why we don’t want to let go and feel vulnerable.
The profession, career or lifestyle may be the thing where we get our self-esteem from, and without it, we feel left out in the open. It gives us a title of who we are and what we are worth (in our own eyes). However, it may also be the very thing denying us of God’s presence. Some of them produce bad fruits in us which only gets revealed when the nets are down. So the net becomes the cover to those rotten fruits hidden under the umbrella of our profession, career and lifestyle. But Jesus is calling you and me to let them down. He wants to deliver us from them and set us free wholly.
Some of our nets are so weighty that they can cause internal damages in our lives. Surprisingly, they may look so beautiful and glossy from the outside, but completely different from the inside. Hidden behind the nets of our lives can be ‘anger, hatred, bitterness, immorality, idolatry, gossip, lying, cheating, selfishness, jealousy, malice, unforgiveness, hypocrisy’ and so much more. But we still hold them close to our hearts not willing to let them down. Some are due to past experiences and encounters. So we now decided to keep them as guards just in case any of those scenarios present themselves again, this way we can be reminded to stand our grounds and prevent them by all means from re-occurring.
However, Jesus is calling you and me to let down those nets; we don’t have to give Him all the excuses and reasons why we can’t. He sure knows before He asks us to do so. But because He can see how those nets have blinded our eyes and prevented us from having an encounter with Him, and also seeing the damages they do to our souls; He gently reaches out His compassionate hands asking to let down at His word.
We all know those things in our lives that are preventing us from coming closer to God. Why not let them down at His word and watch Him do miracles in our lives?
I pray we all learn to surrender to His feet and at His word by the help of The Holy Spirit.
Comments are welcome.
A Lady for my King 