Trust and obey is the key that unlocks the door that leads to eternal salvation. While many have knocked on that door few have truly opened it wide enough to cross the threshold of God’s unlimited security. We may believe in God but we don’t believe God while carelessly continuing to knock, desperately trying to push through on our own strength.
One day as Jesus Christ walked along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he stopped near a fishing boat that was anchored off shore. Standing there he quietly watched as the men repeatedly threw their nets. With each volley the net would sink to the bottom and then be dragged back into the boat completely empty.
“What vain toil these men are bound to as they pursue their lives.” Jesus thought to himself.
Looking past the silhouette of the two young fishermen, the Master thought about how the next three years would change their lives forever. He already knew his own destiny and where his footsteps would end. His life so far had been occupied with finding solitude; places where he could be alone as the Heavenly Father continued to reveal both the joy and the utter sorrow that was set before him.
The nets were hurled once again into the sea. The water gently lapped against their wooden boat as they began to notice the stranger who was starring at them from the shore. He was tall, thin and rugged looking and they thought him to be a simple traveler searching for a handout. They both looked at each other in disgust and then back at their sinking net.
Jesus was dressed in ordinary clothing however it was clear, understood somehow that there was nothing ordinary about the man himself.
The Lord began to wade out into the water towards the wooden skiff. His eyes, once shrouded behind his head wrap, were now luminous blue and a warm mesmerizing smile captivated the two fishermen standing in the boat.
As sunlight danced on the surface of the sea, Jesus called out to the fishermen “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” The men immediately obeyed. They dropped their net overboard and didn’t even watch as it sank to the bottom of the sea. The two men, in resolute obedience, did not think to retrieved their anchor, set the sail or grab an oar to row with, but without thought jumped into the sea and swam towards the Lord.
Trust and obedience are basic necessities to having a healthy relationship with God. Human nature will always persuade us to shoulder the seemly impossible rather than yielding to, trusting in an all powerful, all knowing and loving God’s directions.
On other occasions the crowds that faithfully followed Jesus said he taught and spoke with authority not from this world. He knew things beyond his years and often quieted a dispute with only a word. He was thought by others to be a lazy, listless man who never would amount to anything. “He certainly would never become the King of kings who would one day rule all the nations” mocked the scoffers.
“He that loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me…” Jesus said to a group gathered in the market as he made his way to the Temple. “You cannot serve God and mammon…” the Nazarene said to a group of tax collectors who were sitting near the Golden Gate. “Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but only he who does the will of my Father…” he said to a group of Pharisees discussing the law in the outer court.
Trust and obedience is what Jesus taught his disciples one night in a vineyard under the light of a Passover’s full moon. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing.”
“But why do you call me Lord, Lord and not do the things which I say?” Jesus asked. That to trust and obey in him, to be obedient, to do the things that he instructs us to do is like a man who builds his house on the rock. So that when the storms come and the river rises the house will not be shaken and will weather the storm. But the man without a strong foundation, his house will fall in the midst of the storm and there will be utter destruction.
Staying connected to the True Vine allows the sap to run through the branches and produce fruit. Trusting-obeying God’s blueprint for life ensures a sound foundation and gives strength through the storms that are sure to beat against us.
