Leaving Everything To Follow Him

Bible Reading: Luke 5:1-11

“And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him,” (Luke 5:11)

When we receive abundant blessings from God, there are two kinds of responses. 

The first is like those of her five-thousand who received free bread due to Jesus’ food-multiplying miracle (See John 6). When they received blessings, they hurried to find Jesus and tried to make Him king. It looks like they were seeking to follow Him, right? Wrong. They wanted Jesus to be king so that free bread could continue to be abundant in their land. They did not want Jesus, nor did they care about who He was. Instead, they cared about bread and the blessings Jesus could give them. 

When God has blessed our lives abundantly, are we satisfied with those blessings and long only for more earthly blessings? 

On the other hand, Simon Peter saw God’s abundant blessing — boat-fulls of fish after many long nights of drought. What was Peter’s response? He did not say, “Thank You, Lord! Please come back often so that we can pull a lot of fish and make more profit!”. Instead, Peter humbly realised that the man He was speaking to was the Son of God. He realised that Jesus was holy and that he was a vile sinner. He realised that he didn’t deserve divine intervention in His life. When faced with God’s abundant blessings, Peter looked towards the God who gave the blessings and realised that he stood unworthy before the gracious God. 

What did Jesus say next, and how did Peter respond? 

Jesus said, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men” (Luke 5:10). Jesus called Peter to follow Him full time and become His servant. After pulling the boats to shore, filled with fish to the brim, Peter and James and John, who were also with him, did an astonishing thing. They left everything behind and followed Jesus. They did not wait a few days to sell off the fish they had just caught. Nor did they say goodbye to their families. Then and there, they decided to follow Jesus. 

If God has given us abundant blessings in our lives, what do we see? 

We must know that we are unworthy to receive them, let alone be the care and subject of God’s grace. We must realise we are vile and unworthy, but God still cares and intervenes in our lives. This should bring us to worship the Giver of blessings and not the blessings themselves. In fact, God tells us to leave everything, meaning all the indulgence in the earthly blessings we receive and give our whole lives to follow Him. Where are we?

Lord, remind us again and again that our whole lives are a blessing from You. Remind us that we are unworthy sinners who do not deserve Your grace, especially the greatest grace, Your death on the cross for our sins. Please forgive us when we live only to enjoy Your blessings and forget about You. We want to follow You and leave everything behind. Unite our hearts for You alone. In Jesus’ name, amen.