And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” (Luke 5:4-5)
Often in our lives we are faced with dark nights of the soul, with days that feel more like a knock-out punch than a brief respite from the fight. The many things we’ve tried in so many different ways have repeatedly been met with failure after failure. And then, it seems Jesus comes to the side of the ring and says, “Get up, one more time.” Or changing metaphors, He comes to the boat of your heart and says, “Let’s go out to the deep one more time.” But you have worked hard all night and have caught nothing - nothing has been accomplished, there is no success, only weariness, discouragement, disappointment, and doubt. It doesn't make sense.
UNLIMITED KNOWLEDGE
When Jesus comes to us and speaks to us, we must remember that He always speaks out of unlimited knowledge. He is all-knowing, knowing all things at all times. We hear, though, with limited knowledge. We are not all-knowing, but know very little at any given time.
You and I gather information. But Jesus leads us with more than information. He also leads us with insight. By information, you and I gain what we can. Yet by insight, you and I gain what we can’t know any other way. When you and I consider major decisions, we put all the cards on the table and we think that all the info is pointing us towards one general direction and one obvious answer. But by insight from God we see the things that we hadn’t (or couldn’t), and begin to consider the things that we should. As Christians, this is a priceless gift! To be able to understand the thoughts of God is precious and comforting beyond words and circumstances (1 Corinthians 2:11-12).
Often Jesus asks us to reconsider things blindly, by faith, where the information doesn’t make sense, and to go ahead. But at other times He comes and grants to us a particle of insight that gives us a little bit of hope, reminding us that He knows better than we do what He’s doing and what’s He’s talking about.
UNLIMITED POWER
Often we feel like Peter, working hard all through the night with nothing to show for it. In the different areas of our lives (spiritual walk, marriage, family, finances, relationships, etc.), we toil and accomplish nothing. We see no progress being made and the night keeps dragging on. And then, Jesus comes and asks us to do that one thing again - that one thing that’s never worked or that one thing we’ve been running away from - and we forget that He not only speaks out of unlimited knowledge, but also out of unlimited power to change anything. He is the creator of the world and when He speaks, all things are His servants! He is without limits.
You and I have limited power, which is where our frustration resides. We want to change our own desires or the results we’re getting or the circumstances we find ourselves in, but we can’t, because we’re finite, human, and not all-powerful. Jesus is all-powerful, yet we still respond to His requests, “How is it possible?! I don’t have the strength to continue, to try it again. And if I had the strength I don’t see how it’s going to change anything.”
Peter didn’t know the end of the story like we do. All Peter knew was the night before was long and fruitless and Jesus was asking him to do it again. How can a limitless God ask a limited people to serve Him? A limitless God asks a limited people to do His good and perfect will by supplying them with His strength (1 Peter 4:11), His grace (1 Corinthians 15:10), His energy (Colossians 1:29), and His joy (John 15:11). Everything you and I need, to reconsider and to do what God is calling us to do, regardless of how the night has looked, He provides, so that we can do all things through Jesus Christ (Philippians 4:13; Romans 8:37; 11:36). Our humanity and our weakness are a gift to us when we find our strength in God and He is glorified in our weakness.
UNLIMITED LOVE
In reality, Peter’s words in response to Jesus are as simple as it gets. Living for Jesus doesn’t get any more complicated than this: “I’ll do as you say.” This puts us in the position of waiting for Him to speak. “I’ll do as you say.” This puts us in the position of believing that He wants to speak to us. “I’ll do as you say.” This puts us in a position of trusting in His love.
When Jesus speaks and acts, He always does so out of His unlimited love towards us. He is our Creator and our Savior. For us, though, unlimited doesn’t make sense in our finite and human minds. We have limited minds. We forget things all the time, which is why we take pictures and videos, why we have to-do lists and calendars, why we write in the margins of our Bibles - we tend to forget. Therefore, we must be daily and continually reminded of the unlimited love of God for us.
Previous to this encounter with Jesus, Jesus had healed Peter’s mother-in-law (Luke 4:38-39). So it’s possible that when Jesus came to Peter, he (although questioning whether Jesus knew he had been out all night with no success), remembered Jesus had performed this miracle. This was the same Jesus! This was the same Jesus who had just been in the boat with Peter, teaching the people with great care and love. It’s important for us in our struggle with things, and in our closeness to quitting or taking drastic measures, that we take an hour or even a moment to remember the close calls we’ve had in the past or the near bad decisions that we didn’t make (but would have drastically altered life for the worse). Why didn’t we make it? In the moment, many decisions look like the right ones and everything is pointing toward that decision. Yet God in His mercy and grace and love keeps us from making many bad decisions, because He has a plan for our lives and He intervenes in ten million ways that we will never know.
UNLIMITED THANKSGIVING
At the end of Peter’s life and upon reflection, I don’t think that for Peter the greatest thing Jesus ever did for him was the healing of his mother-in-law or the miraculous catch of fish. At the end of his life, Peter could have remembered everything of what Jesus did for him, but the greatest thing he would have remembered Jesus doing for him was dying on the cross. And this produced unlimited thanksgiving in Peter’s heart, and from his lips it continues today in heaven and into eternity.
So, dear Christian, when you endure a long, dark and hard “night” and consider your life in the shadow of that darkness, and when you stand at the crossroads of where you are and what Jesus is asking you to do, start by looking to the cross. Reconsider your decisions in the light of what He did for you. Remember His unlimited love for you, so that when you hear His words to you, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch”, you can answer, “Master, I toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”
Recent Comments