Let Down Your Nets

Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets. – Luke 5:5 (NIV)

Luke 5:1-11

True fishermen are tenacious, optimistic, and resilient; they refuse to accept defeat. Lured by stories of the big one, hooked on the belief that if they stay long enough and work hard they will make the catch of a lifetime, they come back day after day.

They never stop working, these fishermen. Even on days slow with heat and during nights drowned in rain, their hands are busy preparing for the catch, repairing nets and setting lines. Such a faith they have: what is not good today will be better tomorrow; if I set it, they will come – it’s only a matter of time. Not satisfied with mediocrity and discontented with average, they wait, toil, and dream for the promise of abundance, the assurance that the illusive will one day be their prize.

Even after darkness hard fought with work all for naught, Peter was willing to try once more. He listened to a Teacher, one who he thought knew nothing of fish and boats and seas, and launched out into deep – into waters unexplored. He acted, obeying this Man, the Creator of fish, in spite of his previous failure.

Will you redirect your efforts in response to His word? Will you launch out into the deep, failure fresh, mind exhausted, heart torn? Will you believe, in spite of your past effort, that this time will be different, that He has the catch waiting for you?

God knows where your fish are. He knows the night’s been long, the work’s been hard, the effort it takes to believe. He has the supply – net-breaking, boat-sinking abundance – ready for you. It’s time to go get it. All you have to do is respond.

Launch out once more, believe in the One who’s in charge of it all. He has a plan – try it His way. He calls us to places further, deeper than we have been willing to go before, but because of past hurt or failure we have been scared, felt unworthy to try again.

He has a plan. He knows what’s out there. Sometimes His best lies just beneath the surface of those mysterious waters we’ve been afraid to navigate. He’s in the boat with you. Don’t give up. Because He says so, let down your nets.