One of my favorite stories in the Bible when I was young was the story of the great catch. I had a children’s Bible that had pictures of some of the stories and I remember the picture of Peter and some of the disciples struggling to pull these nets full of fish into their boats.
If you know the story, you know that this isn’t the way the story had started for the disciples. In Luke 5, we read that they had fished all night and hadn’t caught a thing. But then later that morning, at a time that wasn’t really optimal for fishing, they pull in the catch of their lives. What was different? What changed the outcome?
As you read this encounter in Luke 5, I think you’ll discover a couple things that led to this amazing catch. The first is the fact that Peter let Jesus into his boat. In Luke 5:3 it says: “He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon.” I believe if we want to experience miracles in our lives, it starts with letting Jesus into our boat.
After they let Jesus into their boat, they did what He told them to do. They let down their nets. The fact is Peter and these other disciples were fisherman: this wasn’t their first time out on a boat. They knew that this time when Jesus was telling them to cast their nets wasn’t an optimal time for fishing.
I’d guess that many of the disciples, if not all of them, thought He was crazy. After all, they had fished in these same waters all night and caught nothing. But they did what Jesus told them to do: they let down their nets and ended up experiencing the catch of their lives.
I wonder how often we feel like the fishermen that morning, when they had fished all night and caught nothing? I wonder how many of us feel like that more often than we want to admit: trying and trying, again and again, and continuing to come up short.
As I mentioned, I believe that experiencing miracles in our lives starts with letting Jesus into our boat. And after we let Him into our boat, we then need to do what He tells us to do. This is the key to experiencing His will and way for our lives. It’s how we too will experience the miracles.
Lord, help us to make sure we’re allowing You into our boat and that we’re listening to Your voice and doing whatever it is You’re asking us to do. Help us experience the miracles You have for us!
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