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, 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. When He had finished speaking, He
said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down
your nets for a catch.” 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.” (Luke 5:1-5)
St. Peter said to the Lord, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But I will do as you say and let down the nets.”
Some of us this know too well what it is like to have worked all of our lives until we are now in the night of our days on earth, and as we look at what seem empty nets, we conclude we’ve done nothing of value for Christ. It is easy, then, for despair to settle over our spirits.
But Scripture encourages me, and I hope you as well, to do something better. What the Lord Jesus said to Simon Peter, He also says to me and to you who’ve worked hard all our days for Him, even if we’ve not seen so much as one piece of fruit:
“Let down the nets one more time.”
Verse six in that passage is an important part of the story because it reveals something we sometimes forget: the supernatural power of God: “When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break.”
Faith, the writer to the Hebrews reminds us, is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). Our omnipotent God multiplies a few fish and loaves of bread when offered to Him for use, which is why we can let down our nets once again. We can continue doing whatever it is we do for Him because of Scripture’s encouragement to “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (see 1 Corinthians 15:58)
“Yes, Lord, I’ve worked hard all night and have caught nothing. Nevertheless, at your bidding I will let down the nets.”
4 comments:
" We can continue doing whatever it is we do for Him because of Scripture’s encouragement to “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
This keeps me writing /blogging, Rich.
Joann, yes. We continue to do all we know to do that He may be glorified through our lives. Oh, Holy Spirit, enlighten us that we may do better.
Colleen, putting out into the deep always gives me great pause, too. Why should that be? Thanks for commenting.
Thanks for joining us at Sunday Snippets. With link-ups it is customary to leave a link back to the host post. http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com/2013/10/sunday-snippets-catholic-carnival_19.html
Thanks for the recommendation, RAnn . . . but I am unclear what you wish me to do differently. Can you provide me an example? I want to comply to make your site more accessible.
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