Cast on the Right Side
Message Summary: Are you casting your net on the right side? At this point of the year, many of us are feeling tired, empty, like they’ve been fishing all night with nothing to show for it. If you will listen and trust the words of Jesus, or cast your net on the right side, you will have an abundance of whatever you are fishing for. If you’re operating without His words, on your own power and ability, you will always be empty-handed. He is the source of life and strength.
- God just wants you to trust Him.
- Everything you need is already in the water.
God wants us to trust Him. He is good and faithful. He is Jehovah Jireh. He is Provider. The world is temporary, and our time is better spent investing in eternal treasures. Those who sow sparingly or generously will reap the same. He is working on our behalf and for the good of those who love him. It’s not about the money because everything already belongs to him.
We believe that trust should look pretty because it’s been romanticized in the modern church, but it’s normal to have doubts, hesitations, and questions. Faith and trust are not pretty. Ugly faith is having questions and doubts but trusting God through it. “I do believe, but help my unbelief.” God just wants us to trust Him anyway, even when it’s ugly. There are countless people throughout the Bible that also struggled with believing/trusting God: Abraham, Moses, David, the Israelites, Peter… God’s response to them was constantly, “Haven’t I provided for you up to this point?”
God is always telling us to remember what he has done and how he has provided for us. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. What if we started trusting that if we don’t have something, we don’t need it because he always gives exactly what we need?
- Where are you operating in your own strength and struggling with trusting God?
- Where are you investing your time and treasure? In the temporary or eternal? How do you need to adjust this to honor God?
- In what areas have you seen God’s faithfulness that you can remember during your times of doubt?
- How can you refocus your attention to all the ways God is providing exactly what you need?
John 21:2-6 – Peter and the disciples go fishing and caught nothing overnight. Jesus tells them to cast their net on the right side and they’ll find some. They did so and caught so many fish, they couldn’t haul the net.
Psalm 24:1 – The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;
Mark 9:24b – “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
John 20:29 – Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Psalm 23:1 – The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
