As apart of my personal devotion time I have been reading the book of Luke, I have read this book multiple times but this time I am reading it with a searching heart, what I am to learn from God's word?
As I started reading Chapter 5 of Luke I instantly became caught up in what it was saying.
In the first verses it talks about Jesus walking by some boats as a multitude followed him. As He was searching for a place to preach He saw some fishermen by two boats and ask one of them , Simon, to push his boat out in the water a little ways so that He could preach to the people from the boat.
Now, I stopped here and wondered two things: Fishermen in bible times weren't classy people, they were more than likely poor people.Why would Jesus choose to preach HERE among the unclassy poor people?
The Bible doesn't say what Jesus was teaching the people there but I am sure it was inspiring. Simon and the other fishermen were probably near by mending their nets from the nights fishing trip catching a few words here and there of what Jesus was saying and at the same time puzzled as to WHY this strange man would preach in their boat.
When Jesus was finished preaching He told Simon to get back into his boat and go let down his net to catch some fish. Simon, an avid fishermen, probably looked at him in shock when he heard Jesus' request to go back into the boats after a tiring night of fishing and catching nothing. Like many of us he was more than likely discouraged from trying so hard and it availing to nothing and just was ready to give it up. But something lit a spark of faith within Simon to try just one more time, maybe this guy knew what he was talking about. With that small spark he got into his boat and went out into the water. I am sure as he was preparing the nets he was thinking how foolish he would feel if he didn't get anything after listening to this man whom he'd never seen before.
As he lowered his nets into the water he was filled with anticipation, as the nets sat in the water he was in aw as he look at his nets, they were filling with fish, more fish than he had ever seen. As he raised the net to bring in his bounty the nets began to break! With eager excitement he yelled to his fishing partner with the other boat to bring HIS boat and HIS net to help him. Both the men worked quickly to gather all the fish that were in their nets.They soon realized that both their boats were full of fish, so much so that their boats were starting to sink.
I am sure Jesus was standing at shore looking at all this happen, I can imagine he felt their pure joy and excitement when the men had both their boats full of fish, He was excited as they were!
Once Simon reached shore he fell down and worshiped Jesus, for He knew Simon's needs without him uttering a word.
Life today isn't much different than Simon's. Sure, we don't catch fish for a living but we work tirelessly at our job, our relationships, our finances, our health and it seems to result in nothing or very little. Our faith runs on empty and sometimes we just feel like giving up. If we allow Jesus to first step in our boat of life and minister to us, encourage us and uplift us it will give us the faith to launch our boat into the unkown and reap a harvest of plenty.
So I encourage you to launch your boat with that little spark of faith like Simon had and see what God leads you to.
No comments:
Post a Comment