Sometimes I am a lot like Peter. And, if you are the type who gets feeling like there is more you can be doing, that you HAVE to be doing something, or that you are the type who wonders, “Is He really going to do what I think He is” … then you are too.
Right now, as I write this, I am at the end of my rope. It has been almost 7 months now since I got laid off. My business plan for my endeavors… obedience. It was easy for the first three months... got a little harder for the next three months. Now I feel like Pete.
I am getting ancy. I can’t sit still. I can’t sit in the upper room anymore. I have seen Jesus. I heard what He said, saw what He did, and have been burning ever since. But now, the walls seem a little closer than before. It is getting hard to breathe. If for no other reason, I need to keep busy just to distract myself. I’m ready to go fishing.
“Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing.” John 21:3
Ouch. They caught nothing. But Thank God the story doesn’t end there.
“But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt [his] fisher's coat [unto him], (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship; (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes. As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.” John 21:4-11
The thing that you have been doing and seeing no results… the thing that you have been trained to do… the thing that you “fall back on” in times of trouble to provide for your family… your “profession”… when Jesus tells you to cast your net on the right (not only as in the opposite of left but as in correct) side of the boat. DO IT!!! Don’t let people say, “Are you still trying that?” When you know that the Lord has told you… DO IT!!!
Peter was a fisherman. He went fishing. He failed. But Jesus didn’t say, “Come in, pick up a hammer and nail, build something and sell it.” He said, “Cast the net.” To a plumber He might say, “Seal the pipe here.” Or to the carpenter, “Put the door there.” Or to the Chef, “Cook it now.”
Whatever God has given you to do, cast yourself into it. Give it all that you have. Hold nothing back. He didn’t, why should we… why should I.
And when the timing is right, when you are at the end of yourself, when you give it one more try and toil all night doing all you know to do and nothing happens… get psyched! Because you know that when morning comes He and He alone will be standing on the shore. And then… DO IT!!! AGAIN!!!
And you, and I, and anyone else who has tried to be obedient in a difficult situation, will find that when the get to the shore there will already be provision… prepared by Him.
My son brought me this word just a few days ago… when I needed to hear it the most. He was like John saying, “It is the Lord.” And then, just like Pete… I knew it. So I am jumping in the sea. I’m going head first. I’m getting wet.
I hope you do the same.
See you on the shore. Can’t you smell the fish already?
SDG
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