Matthew 13:47 – Once again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a net…

Jesus spent much of His time with fishermen and fishing. He spent His time around the shores and lakes.

The fisherman of old would be astounded by the technology we have available today. They did not use devices like gillnets or trawls, but instead relied heavily on huge nets which could extend up to 300 feet long! To put that into perspective: it required 16 men working together just for one cast-netting operation; then there was all this dragging through the water until finally, their hard work paid off when they pulled in the catch.

Jesus said the Kingdom is like a net. So I started thinking, what does the net symbolize? Why is a net so important? Here is what I believe the net is all about. To catch all that God has for us, we need to have a spiritual net. And what spiritual net catches the blessings, miracles, and destiny God has for us? Our faith!

Jesus was moved by faith. He was impressed by faith. It wasn’t knowledge Jesus was moved by; it was raw faith that caused the Son of God to do miraculous things. The net represents our faith! We are called to use our faith to catch God’s plans and provisions for us.

So what lessons can we learn about the net that represents our faith? Here are some lessons about the net that we can learn about our faith:

Lesson #1 Nets Must Be MENDED

Matthew 4:21 – Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them…

Nets can get damaged after use. If there are holes in the net, one will not catch as many fish. The more holes, the more fish can escape. Fishermen would take excellent care of their net by examining it closely after each use. They would look for any tears in the net that needed to be mended. Our faith is the same; we must not allow our faith to break. When our faith is torn, we are in danger of missing the things God has for us. I call it the FAITH GAP. When what could be is not yet, we can easily forget that God is working behind the set. All of us deal with the FAITH GAP. We see what could be, believe what could be, and want what could be, but we get discouraged by where we actually are. Instead of having faith for the future, we become distraught with the present. When there is no faith for the future, there is no power in the present. Faith needs attention and care. It needs to stay strong in the midst of the storms and unforeseen things that happen in life. Corrie Ten Boom said, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”

One of the most significant ways our faith gets torn is by FEAR! Fear is the enemy of faith; it attacks our faith. The word fear comes from the Old English word Faer, meaning sudden ambush or attack. That is exactly what fear does; it ambushes our faith. Instead of stepping out in faith, we shrink back in panic when fear strikes. Fear puts holes in our faith.

We have to mend our faith when it gets broken. We have to stay strong and walk by faith, not by sight. When we walk by sight, we become a spiritual roller coaster, going up and down, up and down! However, when we walk by faith, we are not shaken by the sight of things around us; we trust that God is ALWAYS working behind the set. He is the one in control, and we can trust that His ways are good and His ways are BEST.

Hellen Keller said, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” Do you have a vision for the future? Do you have faith that God is bigger than what is happening around you?

What areas do you need to mend in your faith? What are some things that you are having a hard time believing God for? I challenge you to mend your faith and get your faith net ready for what God has in store.