The Boat and the Dock

We recently had a group of our men who went deep sea fishing. Evidently, there had been some reports that, because of the unusual weather we had been having this year, there was a certain kind of fish that were being caught by the boatloads, literally.

Now, I’m not much of a fisherman, but these guys were salivating to go. I mean they were motivated. I knew that for sure on the morning that they were scheduled to leave because I got up and realized that they had chosen to go on a day when we were having a Nor’easter. You know there was a big old low off the coast. The wind was blowing and I could just see these guys out their “manhood plans” going down in “the perfect storm.”

Well, it turned out that they had a great time, but caught nothing. Not a single fish! Now just picture these guys coming in from that trip and getting back to the dock where they boarded the boat. when they get up to the dock, one of the boat’s workers probably got off the, jumped onto the dock and took a rope and began to pull.

Here’s my question: When they began to pull, did they pull the dock toward the boat? I mean did the whole continent of North and South America move over three feet to close the gap between the boat and the dock? You say, “Well, that’s a pretty stupid question, Rusty! Of course not! It wasn’t the land that moved, it was the boat. When they pulled the rope, the boat moved closer to the dock.”

That’s right! And when you and I pray we throw out a rope to the Heavenly Father, and through prayer we begin to pull and we begin to ask Him for our requests, but our prayerful pulling does not move the mighty sovereign will of God to our persuasion. No! Instead, we are pulled over to His persuasion.

It looks like this: In prayer, I begin here. (Use hand) I begin praying what I want. But, through prayer, God goes to work on my heart and He begins to move me until my will lines up with His and I actually begin to pray within His will and when I pray within His will, He answers me. THIS IS THE MAJOR REASON WHY I KNOCK AND KEEP ON KNOCKING! I PERSEVERE IN PRAYER BECAUSE AS I CHANGE THERE IS A MIGHTY POTENTIAL FOR CHANGE IN ME.