Luke 5:1-11

Be Still:  Keep me, Lord, from ‘just going through the motions’. Let me be intentional, committed and obedient. Amen

Read:  Luke 5:1-11

And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch’………. ‘Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let downtime nets.’ (v4-5).

Encounter:  It seems remarkable that Simon was willing to launch out and let down his nets again after a long hard, catch-less night. What was so special about Jesus’s words that Simon obeyed and that the first disciples followed Jesus instantly when he called them? No doubt Jesus spoke with an authority that commanded attention; no doubt his words were powerful and spoke deeply to the ‘inner man’, but this is a real, practical demonstration of the power of God speaking and breaking through. 

God still speaks today to individuals and breaks through barriers, to convict and call and inspire.

I was about fourteen when I went with a friend to a Christian holiday centre. I had been brought up in church, attended Sunday school and Sunday services morning and evening, hearing hundreds of sermons. I thought I was a believer and was quite content with my life. But God spoke powerfully to me through one of the speakers: I realised something really important - I was not just someone who occasionally got things wrong or made mistakes, but I was fundamentally sinful and selfish and fatally flawed. Conviction of sin. I gave my life to the Lord that night. God clearly spoke to me.

Apply: Let's continue to ask God to speak to us by his Holy Spirit and that we will have ears to hear – how sad if what we hear and read doesn’t penetrate when we desperately need to be nourished, directed and motivated by God and his truth.

Let's also expect God to speak to those we care about and pray for, who don’t yet believe. Why don’t you identify someone you consider to be the most unlikely person to respond to God, and pray passionately that in the next few weeks God will speak powerfully to them?

Devote:  Lord Jesus speak powerfully to me again and let me hear and absorb your words and direction. I also plead with you that, over the next few weeks, you will break through and speak powerfully to ...........