Small Decisions

I always wanted to be like the Apostle Peter and love God as much as he did, so when others asked who Jesus was to me I could confidently answer, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:69).

Obviously, Peter was far from perfect, but like him, I wanted to lead, to change the world, to be that rock that God used to further His kingdom. Unfortunately, I was more like Peter than I thought, but not for the right reasons. I realized I was the type of man that would shout to God to use me, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water” (Matthew 14:28) only to lose faith and begin to sink.

I realized I was the type of man that would follow Jesus but when approached by trials and difficulties, even in the form of a servant girl, I quickly denied His sovereignty over my life.  I realized I was the type of man that would experience Christ’s Resurrection in my life, and rather than be transformed I ended up going back to my old life and habits i.e. fishing for fish instead of men.  So what did Peter do, despite his failures, that allowed him to completely change his life and dedicate it to God?  He made small decisions.

In Luke 5, after a long night of toiling and catching nothing, Peter made the small decision to listen to Jesus, a Man he knew nothing about, and cast his net into the deep.  In Matthew 14, he made the small decision to walk to Jesus on the water. A decision that initially caused him to sink but eventually led to his full reliance on Christ to save him.  In John 21, after another night of failing to catch fish, Peter made the small decision to cast his net one more time; catching one hundred and fifty-three fish.  All of these small decisions determined Peter’s destiny.

Jesus WANTED to use Peter to change the world, but He needed to teach him full and complete reliance on God and not himself.  The failures Peter experienced were all followed up by accomplishments from Jesus. Jesus needed Peter to understand that he couldn’t do it on his own; he needed to rely on God. When that happened, we see in Acts 2 that Peter brought three thousand souls to the church.

Sometimes as men, we rely too much on ourselves rather than on God. We want God to guide us and help us, but we don’t allow him to take control of our lives. We need to step back and allow God to pick us up when we are sinking or provide fish when we are hungry. Only then can we see God’s sovereignty in our lives and how much he loves us.  So yes, let’s be like Peter in failure but also in success. Start with small decisions and see how your destiny changes.