Fishing is Hard Work
It’s one thing to fish on the weekends. It’s something else to fish every day for a living. Peter, Andrew, James and John fished on the Sea of Galilee year-round. They either sold their fish locally, or the fish were salt-cured and sold as far away as Spain. You wouldn’t get rich that way, but a hardworking man could take care of his family.
Now it is morning, and Peter and the others are tired, exhausted, dejected, and probably in a foul mood. Fisherman like to say that “your worst day fishing is better than your best day in the office,” but I’m not sure Peter would have agreed at that moment. Now they are busy mending the nets—time-consuming work made more difficult by the frustration of knowing they caught nothing the night before.
When Jesus asks Peter if he can use his boat for a pulpit, Peter immediately agrees. He knows Jesus and admires him greatly but until
now has never made a wholehearted commitment.
How fitting it is. Jesus comes to the scene of Peter’s failure and uses it to preach the Word. He takes the ordinary and makes it sacred. He uses a simple fishing boat as the setting for a mighty miracle.
Nothing in this story happens by chance. The empty nets teach us an important truth: God prepares us for his call by allowing us to endure personal failure.
Miracles never happen by chance. Where there is no need, there is no miracle. God never just “shows off” his power. Strange as it may seem, Peter’s apparently wasted night of fishing turns out to be the best thing that ever happened to him.
We must be stripped of our self-confidence before we can be of great use by God. Failure is never wasted if it leads us to cry out to the Lord.
Miracles begin when we come to the end of our own resources.
Let us pray -
Lord Jesus, we thank you for failure because without it, we would never know how much we need you.
Our day-to-day routine is so busy. So much so that we sometimes forget to stop to thank you for all that is good in our lives. Our blessings are many and our hearts are filled with gratefulness for the gift of living, for the ability to love and be loved, for the opportunity to see the everyday wonders of creation. We want to thank you, for those things in our lives that are less than we’d hope them to be.
Sometimes life is very hard, and it’s a struggle to keep our heads above water. Things that seem challenging, unfair, or difficult often hurts. When our hearts feels stretched and empty, and pools of tears form in our weary eyes, we will still rejoice that You are as near to us as our next breaths and that in the midst of turbulence, we are growing and learning. In the silence of our souls, I thank you most of all for Your unconditional love.
Amen Jesus. Amen. Amen.
Scripture -
Luke 5:5
“’Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we’ve worked hard all night long and caught nothing.’”
Now it is morning, and Peter and the others are tired, exhausted, dejected, and probably in a foul mood. Fisherman like to say that “your worst day fishing is better than your best day in the office,” but I’m not sure Peter would have agreed at that moment. Now they are busy mending the nets—time-consuming work made more difficult by the frustration of knowing they caught nothing the night before.
When Jesus asks Peter if he can use his boat for a pulpit, Peter immediately agrees. He knows Jesus and admires him greatly but until
now has never made a wholehearted commitment.
How fitting it is. Jesus comes to the scene of Peter’s failure and uses it to preach the Word. He takes the ordinary and makes it sacred. He uses a simple fishing boat as the setting for a mighty miracle.
Nothing in this story happens by chance. The empty nets teach us an important truth: God prepares us for his call by allowing us to endure personal failure.
Miracles never happen by chance. Where there is no need, there is no miracle. God never just “shows off” his power. Strange as it may seem, Peter’s apparently wasted night of fishing turns out to be the best thing that ever happened to him.
We must be stripped of our self-confidence before we can be of great use by God. Failure is never wasted if it leads us to cry out to the Lord.
Miracles begin when we come to the end of our own resources.
Let us pray -
Lord Jesus, we thank you for failure because without it, we would never know how much we need you.
Our day-to-day routine is so busy. So much so that we sometimes forget to stop to thank you for all that is good in our lives. Our blessings are many and our hearts are filled with gratefulness for the gift of living, for the ability to love and be loved, for the opportunity to see the everyday wonders of creation. We want to thank you, for those things in our lives that are less than we’d hope them to be.
Sometimes life is very hard, and it’s a struggle to keep our heads above water. Things that seem challenging, unfair, or difficult often hurts. When our hearts feels stretched and empty, and pools of tears form in our weary eyes, we will still rejoice that You are as near to us as our next breaths and that in the midst of turbulence, we are growing and learning. In the silence of our souls, I thank you most of all for Your unconditional love.
Amen Jesus. Amen. Amen.
Scripture -
Luke 5:5
“’Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we’ve worked hard all night long and caught nothing.’”
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