CAST YOUR HEART’S NET OUT INTO THE DEEP

“He touched my mouth with an ember from the altar, and said,
‘See, now that this has touched your lips,
your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.’
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
‘Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?’
‘Here I am,’ I said; ‘send me!’” Isaiah 6:7-8

“Last of all, as to one born abnormally,
he appeared to me.
For I am the least of the apostles,
not fit to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am,
and his grace to me has not been ineffective. . . .” 1 Corinthians 15:8-10

“Jesus said to Simon,
‘Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.’

Simon said in reply,
‘Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,
but at your command I will lower the nets.’
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish
and their nets were tearing. . . .
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said,
‘Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.’
. . .  .Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men.’ . . .
They left everything and followed him.” Luke 5: 5-11

Christ, yesterday, today and forever calls, saying to you and to me, “Cast your net out into the deep. Do not worry about your unworthiness. I am with you.”

Think of the people you have met during the past week – the people who were with you – at home, in a car or your school or at your place of employment, in a store or restaurant, near you in church or at a game, wherever. (In order to help you slow down and ponder the incidents, jot down their names.) How many times was Jesus hoping you would hear Him saying to you, “Put out into deep water and lower the net of your heart so that this person and you can meet in this moment and give God’s graces a chance to flow between you.”

Whose names did you jot down? Was the encounter a flowing a God’s graces between you? Could it have been more of this? How?

How many times did you (and I) hear or miss hearing the faint cries of those around us? Or have we too often not been as trusting of the good that God knows to be in us. God knows that the good is there because God, our creator, placed it within us!

How aware are we that the God who spoke to Isaiah in around 470 BC, Simon in 30 AD and Paul in 50 AD is still asking us:

“Whom shall I send?  Who will go for us?” Isaiah 6:8

“Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men.” Luke 5:10

For I am the least of the apostles,
not fit to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. 1 Corinthians 9-10

So let’s cast the nets of our hearts into the deep recess of the hearts of those who are here in the precious but fleeting moments of our everyday lives.

What can we do to help us live these moments as the persons of today who believe with all our might that God, the God of Isaiah, Peter and Paul, has placed us here to be the fishers of the men, women and children of today?

What has to change in my heart so that I will see that God has “placed me here it be a fishers of the men, women and children of today”?

Sister Loretta