Going Deeper

I recently completed Tyler Perry’s book Higher is Waiting.     Though I do not often find myself watching many of Perry’s movies and such,  I thoroughly enjoyed the book.   The book is basically a series of stories of Tyler Perry’s experiences in life and spiritual lessons he learned from them.   He tells a story in the book about contracting for a well company  to drill a well at his home so he could avoid paying high water bills.    The contractor drilled the well in the location he thought he would find water.   After drilling over one thousand feet in the ground, the contractor still had not hit water.    Perry faced a decision put before him to either drill deeper or to have the contractor stop.  Perry shares in the book that he told the contractor to drill deeper.  The contractor complied and drilled only another 4 inches until he hit water for a well that has never gone dry to this day.

I believe that story is a fitting allegory for our lives.    If we want a fulfilled and abundant life, we often need to go deeper in study of God’s Word, Christian service, and discipleship.  If we only allow ourselves to being a “surface Christian”,  we will not know the abundance that can be found in God.     We see that truth in a fishing story in Luke 5: 1-7 where we read: 

 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,^[a] the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. ² He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets.³ He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.  ⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”  ⁵ Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”  ⁶ When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. ⁷ So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

 How deep are you going in your relationship with a God who is greater than we ever could imagine?   Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:   “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”    Amen.    (Ephesians 3: 17b-19)