At your word
Peter, washing his nets
Peter had fished all night and caught nothing. He was a professional, and the lake had given him an emphatic zero. Now, exhausted, he was washing his nets in the morning light when the visiting teacher — a carpenter by trade — climbed into his boat and, after preaching from it, told him to put out into the deep water and let down his nets for a catch.
It was, by every fisherman's instinct, the wrong advice: wrong time of day, wrong depth, given by the wrong kind of expert. Peter said as much. Master, we worked all night and took nothing. Everything in his experience argued against it.
And then came the hinge, three small words of surrender: but at your word. Nevertheless, on the strength of who was asking rather than what made sense, I will let down the net. The catch nearly sank two boats.
“Master, we worked all night, and took nothing; but at your word I will let down the net.”
— Simon Peter, on the lake — Luke 5:5 (WEB)
Weigh the word of Jesus more heavily than your own expertise: nevertheless, at your word, I will.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.”
We let our experience and competence have the final say, so God's word gets a vote but not a veto. The interior work is to keep bringing your understanding to God while refusing to let it overrule him — to obey the clear word of Jesus even when your own expertise argues against it, trusting the One who asks over the logic of the ask.
Find the place where your experience has written something off that God seems to be asking of you. This week, do the obedient thing 'at his word,' naming honestly that it doesn't fully make sense to you, and watch what he does.
Self-reliance loves to keep your own understanding on the throne, whispering that your hard-won experience surely knows better than a word cutting straight against it. So the net never goes back down where Jesus says. Peter did not pretend the order made sense; he simply let the word of Jesus outweigh his own — and the catch nearly sank the boat.
Surrender often comes down to a single phrase: but at your word. We have our experience, our expertise, our well-earned certainty about what will and won't work — and then God asks for something that cuts against all of it. The surrendered heart does not pretend the obedience makes sense; Peter freely admitted it didn't. It simply weights the word of Jesus more heavily than its own understanding.
This is not the surrender of our minds but of their final authority. We still bring our experience to the table; we just no longer let it have the last word over his. Where is God asking you to let down the net in some place your own understanding has already written off — and will you do it, at his word?
- Where is my own understanding overruling God's word?
- Is there a net Jesus is asking me to let down that I have written off?
- Will I obey at his word, even when it doesn't make sense to me?
Lord, I have my reasons and my experience, and still — at your word, I will. Let your word weigh more than my understanding. Amen.