One day as Jesus was preaching on
the shore of the Sea of Galilee, great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the word
of God. He noticed two empty boats at the water’s edge, for
the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water. So he sat in the boat and taught the crowds
from there. When he had finished
speaking, he said to Simon, “Now
go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish.” “Master,”
Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down
again.” And this time their nets were so full of fish they
began to tear! A shout for help brought their partners in the other
boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking. When Simon Peter realized what had happened,
he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m too
much of a sinner to be around you.” For he was awestruck by the number of fish they had
caught, as were the others with him. His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
were also amazed. Jesus replied
to Simon, “Don’t
be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing
for people!” And as soon as they landed, they left everything and
followed Jesus. Luke 5:1-11 (NLT)
There was so much power in the encounter with Jesus
that Peter, James and John staked the rest of their lives on following him – no
matter the cost! Today Jesus is looking
for disciples like that just as much as he was two thousand years ago.
The question of discipleship, however, depends
on the answer to some questions:
Can You Give Him Your Boat?
Jesus asked Peter to lend him his boat and a little
bit of time. Most of us are willing for
that; most of us already do that. We
come to church, put something in the offering plate and try to live a decent
life.
It was a small thing for Peter to let Jesus use his
boat to speak to the crowd; it actually felt good, something Peter could do for
Jesus. He gave him the boat; he even
rowed it out a little bit and stood by to watch the sermon; that wasn’t hard.
Joining a church is a little like giving Jesus the
boat…we are told to tithe, give our singing voice or teaching ability, sit in
the nursery or sweep the floor while cooking a casserole.
But, there is another question.
Can You Give Him Your Pride?
When Jesus asked Peter to go a little deeper and let
down the nets again (after they’d been up all night during prime fishing time) Peter,
the experienced, professional fisherman didn’t see why.
In the normal scheme of things he would look kind of
dorky to his colleagues fishing at this time of day in a fished-out hole; let’s
face it – nobody wants to be laughed-at.
But Peter loved Jesus, so he decided to go along with the goofy
request.
My Uncle Marlen must have felt that way about taking
me fishing; I didn’t have a clue! With a
boatful of onlookers my uncle even had to bait the hook for me. I was 10 and it was my first time ever, and I
was so eager. I didn’t know what I was
doing – but it was my hook that the fish bit first! It felt like Jaws bending that pole! I recall struggling for a few seconds and then
yelling over my shoulder, Uncle Marlen, I got one….now what do I do? Peter must’ve felt like Jesus the novice was
going to make it a long day!
We have feelings like that; we question why the Lord
allows some pretty hurtful and challenging circumstances to come into our
lives…stuff that doesn’t seem to make sense.
Yet, mostly I’ve found at those confusing times that
Christ is asking me to go a little deeper…invest a little more of myself. He wants my pride turned over to him.
For You Today
Is there anything God seems to want you to turn over
to Him, and you’re having trouble making sense of it; or you’re having trouble letting
go?
There could be a whole lot of fish on the other side
of your boat…
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