Jesus Calls Us to Follow Him Week 8: Jesus Calls ME

Jesus Calls Us to Follow Him 
Week 8   Jesus Calls ME 
 
This past month, we reflected on Jesus as the Good News.  We hope you were able to make time to pray each day.
 
The Good News is that God loves us too much to leave us in our brokenness – He never gives up on us!!
 
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish, but might have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him (John 3:16 – 17).
 
 Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, we praise You.  You are wise.  In Your perfect plan, You invite us into Your life.  You lovingly seek us in our daily lives and offer us the free gift of a relationship with You. 
Forgive us for the times we’ve failed to recognize and respond to Your call in our lives.  In Your Scripture You tell us, “It was not you who chose Me, but I who chose you.” (John 15:16)  Thank you for choosing us and inviting us into the adventure of following You.  Help us to know, not just with our head but with our whole being, that You seek each one of us and call us to follow You as Your faithful disciples.  Lord, give us the desire and dedication to follow You with all our hearts.  Jesus, we trust in You.  We make this prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
AMEN
 
 
Reflection
Jesus is actively seeking us.  He is seeking each of us personally and directly.  Jesus is seeking us and inviting us into friendship with Him.  Jesus is making the first move, seeking and finding us wherever we are, and calling us into a relationship of discipleship.
 
Jesus seems to prefer friendship with ordinary people like us.  Consider His first disciples.  They were ordinary fishermen who said and did dumb things.  They didn’t always understand.  They made mistakes.  They came with fears, questions, excuses, other plans, and sometimes reluctance.  But they turned to Jesus in openness and followed Him.  Jesus calls us to do the same.
 
 
Who is Jesus for you, really?  A historical person, a great moral teacher, a philosophy, a church, a dogma, a figure for piety, a mythical super-Santa? 
 
 
Reflecting with Scripture:  Luke 5:1 – 11
 
The crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God.  He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.
 
Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, Jesus asked Simon to row out a short distance from the shore.  Then Jesus sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.  After he finished speaking, Jesus said to Simon, “Row out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”
 
Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.”  When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing.  They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them.  They came and filled both boats so that they were in danger of sinking.
 
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him.  Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”
 
When they brought their boats to the shore, the men left everything and followed Jesus.
 

• When Jesus gets in the boat, where is Simon?  Why is that significant?  What do you notice about them?

 

• What is Peter’s reaction to Jesus’ instruction to lower the nets?  What do you think was going through his mind when Jesus tells him to do this? 

 

• Have you ever felt this way in response to Jesus?

 

• When he sees the catch, how does Peter react?  What triggered this reaction?

 

• What is Jesus’ response?  What does this tell us about who Jesus chooses and calls?

 
Closing Prayer
 
 
He Desired Me So I Came Close
St. Teresa of Avila
 
He desired me so I came close.
 
No one can be near God unless He has
prepared a bed for
you.
 
A thousand souls hear His call every second,
but most everyone then looks into their life’s mirror and
says, “I am not worthy to leave this
sadness.”
 
When I first heard His courting song, I too
looked at all I had done in my life
and said,
 
“How can I gaze into His omnipresent eyes?”
I spoke these words with all
my heart.
 
but then He sang again, a song even sweeter,
and when I tried to shame myself once more from His presence
God showed me His compassion and spoke a divine truth,
 
“I made you, dear, and all I make is perfect.
Please come close, for I
desire
you.”