BACKSLID?

A popular saying goes " If you feel far from God right now, guess who moved? you are only a decision away from reconnecting."  We are in the middle of a pandemic and we have all had to try to adjust to the new situation. We've had to fight back anxiety, depressive thoughts and fear, waking up every morning to saddening things happen all around us. We've all had a tough year!

 If you have found yourself waking up each day feeling different emotions then you are definitely not alone. Personally, some days are a drag and this spilt over into different areas of my life. There have been days I go on a full wave of hope and some other days, gloom. Little by little pulling away from the relationship with Christ I once basked in. 

Peter, the one who swore to stand by Jesus found himself drifting away shortly after Jesus' death. When he had first encountered Jesus, he had made a switch in his profession, to "fish for men". He had started this new walk with Jesus and had shared in the spread of the gospel, witnessing Christ and had experienced first hand the miracles Christ performed. Now Jesus had died and left the spread of the gospel to his disciples.  

On this fateful evening, some of the disciples were sitting together conversing, when Peter got up and spoke abruptly "I'm going fishing". With nothing else to do, the others decided to follow him along.

They got on a boat and paddled to the middle of the sea where they cast their nets. At first, it seemed like a fun activity as they hadn't been out on a fishing trip in a while but the excitement soon died down when hours had passed and they still hadn't made a catch. They struggled all through the night while chattering and laughing away their disappointments until it was dawn.  

By morning, they were all exhausted from the night's toil.  

"Good morning, did you catch any fish?" a voice screamed from the shore. 

"NO!" they gave a loud response to the man on the shore.

"Hey, throw your net to the right side of the boat and see what happens." the man said as he waved at them.

They obliged. Suddenly, their nets were filled with a substantial amount of fish that the nets started to tear, they all joined hands to try to drag the catch onboard. 

They were puzzled. How had they been out all night and not been able to catch a single fish but a stranger comes within a few minutes and tells them where to cast the nets and boom! they make the biggest catch of all their fishing years? 

 He probably was a more skilled fisherman and had known the sea better than they did, they thought to themselves. Or maybe he knew the right hours and the exact areas which the fish would normally be in abundance, but then again they had passed their nets and hooks around this same spot countless times and had caught nothing. John tried to make sense of what had just happened and he looked on the shores again and recognized the only man who could possibly perform such amazement. It had to be Jesus! only he would do something like this. "It's Jesus," John said out loud. "Peter, it's Jesus!"  John repeated with excitement in his voice. He probably would have jumped out of this boat in excitement but peter beat him to it.  Peter in excitement rolled up his trousers and jumped into the water running to meet Jesus. While the other disciples came behind on the boat with the fish they had caught. They took some of the fish and sat with Jesus and had breakfast.

 Jesus looked at Peter and asked, "Simon, do you love me more than these? " with no hesitation Peter responded, " yes, you know I love you!"

"feed my sheep," Jesus replied. Jesus asked Peter again "Simon, do you love me?"  and again Peter responded "yes! You know I love you." Jesus looked at him and said, "Feed my Sheep."

Jesus asked him the third time " Simon, Do you love me?" but peter responded sadly " You know all things Lord, you know I love you." 

Peter had gone back to the same place Jesus had called him from, He had moved away and gone back to the things he was used to. Jesus referred to him as Simon rather than Peter, Simon meaning the wavering one. When Jesus called him by that name three times he was stressing to Peter that he had moved from being  Peter(meaning the rock) to becoming the wavering one. It wasn't that Jesus didn't know of Peter's love for him. 

 John 14:15 says "if you love me you will obey my commands" and at that point, Peter had wandered off from the place where Christ had called him to, he had derailed from the command to feed the sheep and spread the gospel and had backslid away from the relationship he once enjoyed with Christ.

Did you lose interest in the things God called you to do? 

Do you feel like God is so far away from you? 

Do you love God but somehow you can't get back to enjoying the relationship you once had with him? Peter felt all these, but on the day Jesus called out he rolled up his trousers and dived in and swam ashore to Jesus.  You are only a decision away from reconnecting, Ask God to tear down the boxes that you have tried to put Him in. Run in reckless abandon and let Him teach you who He is again. Christ is here to take you back to having a sweet fellowship with him but he needs you to want this. To come to a place where your heart is only about Him, a place of surrender to sit at his feet and take each step at a time.

If you don't feel close to God right now It was you who moved. Hurry back now.

"And when you draw close to God, God will draw close to you" James 4:8 (LT)

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reference: Luke 21