Let Down Your Nets

August 19

We tend to think of God as being ‘long ago and far away.’ Even God-in-the-flesh, Jesus Christ, walked the earth two thousand years ago. In the day-to-day course of the average life, He does not seem imminent. We trudge through life for the most part, dealing with our problems ourselves, as we encounter them.

But this is not how Jesus, our God and Savior and soon-coming King, wants it to be. He wants us to know that He is ‘there’ for us. One very real scriptural example of the Lord’s desire to meet us at the point of our need occurred when Peter was fishing. He had been on the water all day without catching anything.

When he docked his empty boat, Jesus said, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets…” Peter argued that he’d been fishing all day and had caught nothing but would set forth again because the Lord said to do so (Luke 5: 4,5). When Peter had followed the leading of Jesus, his nets were filled to overflowing!

In Luke 5: 8 we are told, “When Simon Peter saw that the nets were filled to breaking, he fell at Jesus’ feet and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.’” As He did with Peter, Jesus wants to meet us at our point of need; and when He does, we, too, will see ourselves as we are—and see HIM AS HE IS!