VERSE 22: “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out.
This part of my story could be called: Who is in charge and where are we going?
I saw Jesus’ work in my family and knew I could trust Him. If you have never witnessed Jesus work in anyone’s life around you, I will share my story so you can see how the power of Jesus transformed my life. No one gets into a boat with someone they don’t know. The disciples wouldn’t and neither should you. Before this story, the disciples had seen Jesus perform many miracles. They knew Jesus not only by reputation but also by personal experience. In Luke 5 Simon Peter, a fisherman, gets the biggest catch of fish in his life after following advice from a teacher named Jesus. Peter knew he experienced the power of Jesus and was ready to follow Him. Have you see Jesus work? Have you witnessed His power personally? You see, once you have accepted Jesus to be part of your life (get in your boat) He doesn’t want to just be some sort of second thought passenger, He wants to be in charge. Once He is in charge He wants to take you on a journey.
This is how Jesus got control of my life. Fast forward several years (8ish) I was going to church, Sunday school and youth group. From the outside it would look like I was a model member of church. Because I knew Jesus and recognized the transformation in my parent’s life a decision to follow Him came as habit to me. However, there was no transformation in my own life. I was just following everyone else’s lead. After my parents accepted Christ as Lord of their lives, I was placed in Sunday school and raised in the church. It seemed I was at church every time the doors were open, which was fine with me. I had many good friends at church; in fact church was more about my social life than anything else. I was much more concerned about if Heather would be there or what Dan said rather than learning about prayer, the Bible or Jesus.
However, one day while sitting in Sunday school I suddenly realized how shallow my motivations were and how worthless my “churchy” actions were because they were all motivated by my social life. I don’t know if you have ever had a “white light moment,” but in Sunday school one morning I did. Everything that was going on faded to the background and it seemed like God was speaking directly to my soul. I felt my selfish lifestyle and social living called into question. All my outward actions were not based on my love for Jesus or for His people, but I did these things to be in the middle of things socially. The Bible says, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain concept…but here everything I was doing was motivated by selfish ambition.
How could I call Jesus Lord and savior, but not place Him on the throne of my life? How could I live such a two faced life, claiming that Jesus was to be worshiped on Sunday but not setting Him up as Lord to rule over my day to day decisions? Maybe some of you struggle with the same thing. Jesus is good and you know He is the son of God, but instead of giving Him the place of honor in your life. You place Him on the shelf with a bunch of other worthless things that you have accumulated over the years. You also wonder why you don’t get an instant response from Him when you do pull Him out and want something from Him. He doesn’t work like some sort of crystal ball that you get out and look at every once in a while. A life with Jesus works best when He reigns supreme in your life.
From that moment on, I made a decision to allow Jesus to rule in my life, decisions that would be made would be given over to what God wanted rather than what my social agenda called for. My relationship with God would no longer serve my social purposes, but He would become personal. This was not that difficult of a step because I had seen Jesus’ work in my life and the life of others, I knew He could be trusted. Trust me, I wouldn’t let a stranger drive my boat. Soon after that, God called me to make decisions that weren’t always popular (even with the church crowd). I lost some good friends along the way, but what I gained was to find God to be faithful in all my circumstances.
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