"Nevertheless at Thy Word I Will Let Down the Net."

Welcome, welcome, to this beautiful Sabbath day!!!  I absolutely love Sundays and the opportunity we all have to go and worship Christ and refresh ourselves for another week!!  It's simply amazing every Sunday to gather with my friends and feel their spirits testify of the truth which we all embrace!  Why can't everyday be Sunday?!

Today being Sunday, I came home and decided that I wanted to read the Ensign.  The latest issue I have is from March.  I was reading an article called "The Savior's Compassion" by S. Kent Brown (Emeritus Professor of Ancient Scripture, Brigham Young University).  It's really a wonderful article and I would highly recommend it to everyone (LDS or not) and you can read it by clicking on it above. :)  However, the message which I got from the article has very little to do with the message which Brother Brown shared.

If you recall from the New Testament, Christ met four of his apostles while on a boat: Peter, Andrew, James, and John.  The Savior was standing on Peter's boat, speaking to a congregation of eager listeners and when he had finished, he told Peter to row out further away from the shore and cast out the nets.  Peter told Jesus that the fishing had been horrible and they'd had no luck all night, but "nevertheless at thy word will I let down the net." (Luke 5:5, KJV)  This is where I found the message of Brother Brown's article.  Peter told Jesus that they, experienced fishermen, had had no luck throughout the night, but he still trusted this man from Nazareth  and let down the nets when he told him to do so.  Because of this, he and his brother, Andrew, along with James and John were blessed with so many fish there was barely enough room in both of their boats, the approximate dimensions of which are given in the article above.  And now, here comes the application :)

Oftentimes, the Lord asks us to things which we think there is no way we could possibly do.  My favorite example of this is tithing.  If you've ever been a college student, then you know how hard it is to make ends meet with a minimum wage job, especially in Provo, UT where there are very few jobs available.  Sometimes, we may question whether we can afford to pay the ten percent which the Lord asked of us.  We may think, like Peter, that the Lord is asking us to do something incredibly hard or incredibly pointless.  "I tried it last month and I just barely had enough to pay for rent and groceries; I've been looking for other sources of income, but I just can't find anything else.  I don't know if I can afford to give anything!  Besides, what's my fifty dollars really worth?  There are plenty of other people who pay their tithing." But, if we can be like Peter, and trust in the Lord and when the Lord tells commands us to, 'let down our nets' we can receive a blessing so great that there is not room enough for us to receive it!!  Peter didn't know how many fish they would catch by letting down the nets or if they would even catch any fish at all!  But he had seen Christ heal his mother-in-law and he knew that He was no ordinary man.  By acting on that small tiny bit of faith which Peter had, he received so many blessings that there literally was not enough room to receive all of them!  He had to call on James and John to come and help him and split the fish between the two boats, and even then there was enough fish in each boat to cause them to start to sink!  Just think what we could receive from the Lord is we could have the same faith which Peter demonstrated and simply do what he asks of us without hesitation.  Maybe then we could go to institute, despite the loads of studying we need to do.  We could make time for FHE, despite the paper we have due that week.  We could invite a friend to church, even though they may have already turned the invitation down.  We could act purely on faith and rely on the Lord to carry us through.

Wouldn't that be nice? I think so. :]