(Audio)
The Kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the Gospel.
Repenting means something different and much greater than beating ourselves up for our past sinfulness. It calls for conversion, an complete change in the orientation of ours lives. The word metanoia calls us to change our minds, or even better, to transcend them. We are called to get beyond our limited ways of being and thinking in this world. In practice, this can be quite a radical transformation.
“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Then they left their nets and followed him.
Simon and Andrew set aside everything they knew about surviving and taking care of themselves in this world. Without their nets, which were not trivial to replace, they placed everything in the hands of Jesus and his Gospel.
He walked along a little farther
and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They too were in a boat mending their nets.
Then he called them.
So they left their father Zebedee in the boat
The brothers James and John also surrendered everything into the hands of Jesus. Changes such as these are quite dramatic. Perhaps we are called to such a radical break with our present lives. Or perhaps we are called to conversion in ways that, while less dramatic, still require the same surrender of heart and mind to Jesus. Even if we are called to remain in the situations in which circumstances have placed us we still need to be able to surrender them to Jesus. We need to be just as willing to follow Jesus as Simon, Andrew, James, and John.
The LORD is able to provide for us better than we can provide for ourselves. But this is not to say that fidelity is without challenges. Hannah has to be patient at first before her trust in the LORD is vindicated.
Her rival, to upset her, turned it into a constant reproach to her
that the LORD had left her barren.
Maybe we are at the spot in our lives where we find Hannah. Maybe we feel barren, unable to produce fruit for the kingdom, mocked by the world around us. Even so, let us follow Jesus! Even so, may our nets be guided by his command! He has such good plans for us. The catch, if we follow him, may not be immediate. But how can we doubt that he will accomplish his plans in us?
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope (see Jeremiah 29:11).
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