Luke 5:1-11
1 Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; 2 and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. 3 And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat. 4 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” 6 When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; 7 so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” 9 For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.” 11 When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.
I was reminded yet again this past week of this passage of Scripture as I taught it to my students.
This is one of my favorite passages involving one of Jesus' closest disciples - Simon Peter.
The fisherman, soon to be some of Jesus' disciples, had been fishing all night and had not caught any fish. They were on shore washing their nets when Jesus needed a place to talk with the crowd of people that were following Him and got into one of their boats. After He finished talking to the people, Jesus told Simon Peter to go back out in the deep and let down their nets to catch fish.
Peter, who always spoke before he thought, said to Jesus that they had been toiling all night and had not caught any fish - however, he decided that at Jesus' word they would go back out and fish. Peter felt like he knew more. I have a feeling Peter was doing this to "humor" the Lord. It may have crossed his mind to "prove" to Jesus that no fish were out there to be caught!
What a miracle of provision awaited those fisherman, soon to be disciples!! They went out and cast their nets into the water to find that so many fish were caught up that their boat could not contain them all. They had to call for a second boat and both boats were so full they began to sink.
Peter realized how foolish he was to try and tell the Lord what to do.
Jesus was patient. He used that as an example to let them know that they were now going to be "fishers of men."
How many times does the Lord ask us to do something and we tell him "It can't be done." We keep putting God in a box and thinking that we know better than He, just like Peter. How many times have we tried to say "See, God... it isn't working!"
He wants to bless us, just like He blessed those fisherman with an abundance of fish... more than they had probably ever caught on their own.
He just wants us to have the faith to trust Him above all that we think.
Let's stop trying to tell the Lord what is best for us, and listen to Him as He leads, guides and directs.
The blessing is there waiting for us.
The blessing may be hard work.
It may be learning patience.
It may mean a broken spirit.
It may be something you have prayed for over and over.
But no matter what, that blessing will allow us to be better "fishers of men" to glorify our Lord.
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