What kind of faith do you think our Father delights in the most? Is it the faith we experience when we feel his loving presence, when he clearly answers our prayers and we are assured of his will and guidance in our lives? While this might be a strong and confident faith to our human minds, I believe our Father delights more in a different kind of faith, and I see this illustrated in the following exchange between our Lord and Peter in Luke 5:4-6. I was listening to the Gospel of Luke on MP3 last night, and this brief passage jumped out at me as a wonderful illustration of the kind of trust God wants us to have in him. The exchange begins with a request from our Lord, "He said to Simon, 'Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch"' (Luke 5:4), this instruction illustrates the promises and commands we have from our Father in his word and in our everyday experiences. How does Peter respond?. "Simon answered and said, 'Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing"' (Luke 5:5). Is this not the feeling we so often express towards God? When we doubt his promises, don't feel his presence, question his love and experience unanswered prayers? But see what Peter says next, "but I will do as You say and let down the nets". Here lies the act of faith that I believe our Father delights in the most; when we obey him despite our doubts, when we don't feel like it, when we don't feel his love or presence, when we just take him at his word even if our flesh is screaming against it. And what was the reward of Peters act of faith? "When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break" (Luke 5:6). His faith was rewarded richly as ours will be if we trust our Father above everything.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Do as He says
What kind of faith do you think our Father delights in the most? Is it the faith we experience when we feel his loving presence, when he clearly answers our prayers and we are assured of his will and guidance in our lives? While this might be a strong and confident faith to our human minds, I believe our Father delights more in a different kind of faith, and I see this illustrated in the following exchange between our Lord and Peter in Luke 5:4-6. I was listening to the Gospel of Luke on MP3 last night, and this brief passage jumped out at me as a wonderful illustration of the kind of trust God wants us to have in him. The exchange begins with a request from our Lord, "He said to Simon, 'Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch"' (Luke 5:4), this instruction illustrates the promises and commands we have from our Father in his word and in our everyday experiences. How does Peter respond?. "Simon answered and said, 'Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing"' (Luke 5:5). Is this not the feeling we so often express towards God? When we doubt his promises, don't feel his presence, question his love and experience unanswered prayers? But see what Peter says next, "but I will do as You say and let down the nets". Here lies the act of faith that I believe our Father delights in the most; when we obey him despite our doubts, when we don't feel like it, when we don't feel his love or presence, when we just take him at his word even if our flesh is screaming against it. And what was the reward of Peters act of faith? "When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break" (Luke 5:6). His faith was rewarded richly as ours will be if we trust our Father above everything.
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