Peter was good at fishing. He’d spent most of his life on a boat, handling nets and other fishing gear. It was comfortable for him. It was what he knew.
Jesus knew this about Peter (of course, he did, right?), so when He called him to be a “fisher of men,” Peter could easily relate and was eager to get on board.
Jesus was calling him to a knew life. He used Peters old experiences to shed light on the new, greater experience he could be a part of. Peter immediately formed, in his own mind, a picture of what the end of this new journey would look like. He had no idea where this new life would eventually take him. Along the way, situations arose that caused him to doubt; to believe that this “new life” he had given up everything for was just a dream. Then, after Jesus was crucified, he went back to what was comfortable. He went back to his old life (John 21:3), and found that it was completely unproductive (… and that night they caught nothing.)
Many times, God calls us out of our comfortable places. He offers us a new experience… a new life. He calls us to something greater than anything we could ever accomplish in our comfortable place. In those times, we often form our own ideas of what the end result will be. And then come the hard times, setbacks and disappointments. When these come, we often go back to what was comfortable instead of pushing forward based on the instruction we received.
Here are some tips to avoid “going back” and forfeiting the destiny and legacy God has planed for us…
1- Allow God to form the vision. Be careful not to allow preconceived ideas and desires to distort the actual plan God has in His heart for you and your life. Jeremiah 29 tells how the children of Israel allowed voices other than Gods own to form a vision of their future which only led to frustration and disappointment.
2- Be careful not to allow current circumstances to cause you to doubt what you heard God say. Luke 7 tells us of John the Baptists doubt and his questioning of Jesus really being who he said he was because of his being imprisoned and sentenced to death.
3- In times of difficulty along the way, remember, if God said it, He will faithful to carry it out in your life. In 2 Timothy 1 verse 12 Paul writes “For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.” He also writes ta similar statement in Philippians 1 verse 6; “… being confident in this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Can you think of some times when you have lost sight of the vision of God for your life?
How did you get back on track? Or, how did you avoid going back to the “comfort zone” when times got hard on your journey?
