Bible insights from your friends at La Jolla Lutheran Church

Trust Jesus

Jesus will tell you things you don't believe. Will you trust Jesus? Or the facts you think you know?

Peter was a commercial fisherman. He knew the business. But one night after no results, someone on the shore told him to put the net on the right side of the boat.

If you know anything about fishing, you know it makes no difference whether you fish off the right or the left side of the boat. Peter could easily have rejected the idea. It would take work and it made no sense.

Fortunately, he decided to trust the person on the shore. Nothing else had worked. Why not try it? He and his partners went from no results to overwhelming results, a net so full of fish that initially they couldn't pull it in.

This is often how it will appear to us, when we encounter Jesus. We are the experts. We have facts, history, and convention on our side. Then Jesus contradicts our beliefs and invites us to trust him. Will we trust what we think we know? Or will we decide to trust Jesus when he is so obviously wrong?

Maybe an example or two would help. Here's some things Jesus says that you may not yet fully believe:

  • Your sins are forgiven. Not just the small ones. The recurring ones. The ones so big you never talk about them. The ones you still feel so bad about. Let them go. Jesus died to set you free.

  • You can do greater things than Jesus. Jesus raised the dead. He healed lepers that no one else would get near. He healed the blind, the deaf, the lame. He freed people from demonic influence. He turned water into wine. He walked on water. And he said you will be able to do greater things than he did. (Check out John 14:12.)

  • If you ask anything in Jesus name, you will receive it. Jesus said if we asked anything in his name we would get it. (See John 14:13-14.)

When we don't believe Jesus, we don't try to do things that are beyond our expectations. We live within convention.

But if we believe Jesus instead of what we think we know, we start to try things that make no sense. We stretch. We learn. We develop. Often we live in the painful place between Jesus' promises and what we think we can see. It's uncomfortable and forces us to grow. And sometimes unbelievable, extraordinary things happen.

It's your choice.

God, help us to trust Jesus when we think we know better. Thank you. Amen!