Letting go can be tough. But sometimes we are the ones who make it toughest—often, without even realizing it. We hold onto things for dear life. We think these things help us get around, even get through a day. Actually they cripple us. They keep us from reaching our destiny. I’m talking about things like …
- addictions, everything from the usual suspects that people talk about like drugs and alcohol, to the not so usually-mentioned food and television.
- low-self esteem, choosing to believe all the things we can’t do instead of what God can do through us.
- negative self-talk, like how we tell ourselves that we can never do better or do more and that things are impossible.
Too often we make excuses for ourselves too. We become consumed with the things, past or present, that don’t matter. We let these things take our attention from what God has in mind for us. We are just like Peter in the Bible.
Remember the story (in Luke 5:1-11) of how Jesus wanted to bless Peter? Jesus asked to use Peter’s boat to launch into deep waters so he could do something special for his fisherman friend.
Peter responds with all kinds of excuses: My partners and I have been working all night. We’re tired. Not only that, we never even caught one fish.
Then Peter realizes these are crutches and they aren’t going to get him anywhere, at least not to the great place Jesus has for him. He throws down his crutches. Okay, he tells Jesus, because you say so I will launch my nets in the deep waters.
That’s exactly what Jesus was waiting to hear. Because when we say, “all right, Lord, let’s go,” he takes us into the deep, the rich, the more he’s had in store for us all along. For Peter, he filled those nets with so many fish they sagged and began to break.
Peter not only threw away his crutches that day, but in his journey to believe, he was shown that with Jesus, he could walk on water. But that is another story …
(Excerpt from You Are Made For More!, Chapter 8)
