When Your Journey Seems Long & Hard

Early in our lives, we don’t know our limitations. Experience has a way of teaching us what we can’t do as well as what we can if we strive for understanding. If we are fortunate, when we are young, we have people cheering us on, though some have struggles from the beginning. The point is that we all have to determine whether to let life’s ups and downs control our future or whether we will reach for the understanding that will unlock the potential and purpose that we were created for.

Growing up in California in the 50s and 60s in a non-religious family I believed in the concept of evolution and Darwin’s idea of survival of the fittest. Though I was a fairly small and skinny kid until high school I realized if I didn’t have the means to advance in life personally I could align myself with those that did and thus leverage their assets to help me. Though this has its limitations, when you’re young, any help is an asset. Sooner or later, this concept of leverage falls apart unless the person you’re trying to align yourself with is both powerful and generous.

The first disciples had tapped the strength of the Jewish culture and faith and came to realize as young men that there had to be more in life or they would despair. The Old Testament scriptures spoke of God’s love and mercy yet they found themselves living with selfish and hateful religious people, as well as the Romans who were controlling their lives through force and taxation. Finally, they thought they had found the ultimate person to align themselves with…… JESUS!

The problem was they thought He was going to solve all their problems but had died a horrible death on a Roman cross and their Jewish fathers had been a party to this hated. What would they do now? Who could they truly trust after their messiah was overcome by such hatred and deceit ?

Many of us today may find ourselves in somewhat similar circumstances. We came to trust Jesus because someone or some people pointed the way to Him as the answer to life’s problems and the healing of our brokenness. Then it happened. The very people we trusted seemed to fail us……maybe a pastor or a church leader…..maybe a close church friend or a favorite speaker/author fell from grace……maybe we left a church that was too broken itself to be a safe harbor to stay with and now we find ourselves adrift in a world that seems to be falling apart by the minute.

Jesus’ disciples found themselves in a world blown apart with no safe harbor but one – fishing!

John 21:1-3 

After these things Jesus manifested Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and He manifested Himself in this way. Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will also come with you.” They went out and got into the boat; and that night they caught nothing.

Sometimes, when you’re confused, the best thing is to go back to something that was secure to you and gave you encouragement. At one point in my early life in Christ I was a part of a ministry that so discouraged me that I left, moved back to California and got a job as a mechanic, which is what I knew best.  I started working and reading the life stories of great saints from the past. People that finished their race and finished well. I knew the best thing was to refocus my life on the basic. Forget the complexity of the past and find a safe harbor for my soul. I started my Christian walk understanding that the Holy Spirit was my life line, not people or things, so I went back to my roots and found clarity.

John 21:4-6 

But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. So Jesus *said to them, “Children, you do not have any fish, do you?” They answered Him, “No.” And He said to them, “Cast the net on the right-hand side of the boat and you will find a catch.” So they cast, and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish.

Here is the thing about what the disciples did. They listened to a “suggestion” from a stranger they did not know. They had fished all night, but the suggestion sounded familiar. Jesus had done and said the very same thing when they first met him. Jesus had challenged Peter to cast his net once again even though he had worked all night with no success. I have found a key to God’s presence and provision…..respond to the Holy Spirit’s voice or suggestion no matter where it comes from. God could use a friend, a stranger, a co-worker or even a child. One time my wife was praying along the cliffs of California when a little girl came out of no where and spoke a word to her and then seemed to vanish. God once spoke to a foolish prophet through a donkey.

John 21:9-10 

So when they got out on the land, they *saw a charcoal fire already laid and fish placed on it, and bread. Jesus *said to them, “Bring some of the fish which you have now caught.”

The third thing this encounter reveals is that God often wants to partner with us. We often are waiting for God to do everything for us when he wants us to work with him using what we have, even when those things seem insignificant to us.

Though there is so much more in this encounter with Jesus after his Resurrection I want to point out, there is a final key thing when our faith journey becomes hard or even broken.

John 21:20-22 (NASB)

Peter, turning around, *saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; the one who also had leaned back on His bosom at the supper and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” So Peter seeing him *said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?” Jesus *said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!”

We need to stop looking at others and how Jesus seems to be leading and treating them. It’s very easy to be jealous of other believers without even realizing it. That jealousy may be the very thing God has been trying to deal with in our hearts and the only way he could do so was by getting us alone so we would be desperate to hear the Holy Spirit’s voice in whatever way he wanted to speak.

Jesus’ word to Peter is very important – Stop being so concerned about others success or victories and “FOLLOW”.

Questions:

1) Are you struggling to make sense of life? Seek the voice of the Holy Spirit – He is your guide.

2) Have you been complaining about other believers because they seem to have it easier?  Confess & be free.

May the Holy Spirit be all that Jesus said He would be, Guider, Comforter & Equipper