Leaving Your Boat

“So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.” Luke 5:11 (NIV)

Salvation is an event followed by a process of maturation. Once you become a follower of Christ, your eternal destiny is radically altered and your daily activity should be intentionally allocated. The daily spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible intake, solitude, journaling, worshiping, witnessing, serving, and persevering become growing attributes of your walk with God.

What do you need to leave in order to follow? What is keeping you from full devotion to Christ? What boat do you need to pull up on shore in order to follow Christ? Your boat may be preoccupation with hobbies. Your boat may be infatuation with your career or intoxication by excessive media consumption. Perhaps your boat is fixation on security, stability, and predictability. Everyone has a boat that needs to be beached!

• “Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.'” Luke 9:62 (NIV)
• “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ–the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” Phil 3:8-9 (NIV)

What do you need to “stop doing” in order to be fully devoted to Jesus? What do you need to “start doing” in order to give your undivided loyalty to Christ? Take a few moments to develop a “stop doing” list and then a “start doing” list! Identify the boat that is hindering your love relationship with Christ and pull it up on shore and leave it. If you want to cleave to Christ, be willing to leave the boat on the shore!

Pursuing God,

Stephen Trammell
Executive Pastor