providence directs us to the place of His
provision. Here’s how it looked for Peter
and those around him:
And when they had this done,
they enclosed a great multitude
of fishes: and their net broke. And
they beckoned unto their partners,
which were in the other ship, that
they should come and help them.
And they came, and filled both the
ships, so that they began to sink.
(Luke 5: 6–7)
I am thinking that maybe—just
maybe—Peter didn’t mind the extra work
of mending those now broken nets. Peter
and his partners were incredibly amazed
to see that Jesus knew what He spoke of;
He was even the Master of their craft.
They had not only seen provision; they
also had seen the Provider. But here is
the key: Peter didn’t see Who Jesus really
was until he stepped out in obedience to
His words.
Peter responded the way we all would
do well to respond when realizing just
Who Christ really is. When Peter realized
there was something more than physical
about this Jesus, something holy, then
Peter saw his own ungodliness and knew
he could not even stand before Jesus.
When Simon Peter saw it, he fell
down at Jesus’ knees, saying,
Depart from me; for I am a
sinful man, O Lord. For he was
astonished, and all that were with
him, at the draught of the fishes
which they had taken: And so was
also James, and John, the sons of
Zebedee, which were partners with
Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon,
Fear not; from henceforth thou
shalt catch men. (Luke 5: 8–10)
Peter rightly feared greatly in His
presence. Do we fear greatly in the
Lord’s presence? But for Christ’s work
in our own hearts, the washing of our
own sin, which one of us could stand
in His presence? Have we become too
comfortable to understand His absolute
holiness in fear and awe?
But Jesus says to Peter, “Fear not; from
now on, you will catch men.” Jesus said
his life was now going to take on eternal
value. From now on, Peter would not
merely expend all his energies on physical
sustenance; instead, he would turn to that
higher eternal purpose of capturing men’s
hearts for Christ Himself. How about us?
Are we merely expending energies on
physical things in order to just make it
through one more day? Or do we hold on
with all our might to that higher eternal
vision of capturing hearts for Christ
Himself? It’s a high calling. It’s the “more”
that Jesus asks of us on top of our daily toil,
but Jesus asks us to follow Him there:
And when they had brought their
ships to land, they forsook all, and
followed him. (Luke 5: 11)
They forsook all. They left behind the
all-consuming physical to gain the all-sufficient spiritual. They followed Jesus.
It was what they were compelled to do
after encountering Him in a new way.
They could really say from their deepest
heart, “I quit!” They quit following their
own life’s agenda and changed directions.
They quit relying on their own thinking
patterns and quit leaning on their own
understanding. They quit holding onto
what was unproductive. We, too, could
learn the lesson of letting go of what
keeps us bound and unproductive and fall
by faith into the arms of Jesus. We could
quit striving in the flesh and change our
life’s direction toward God’s eternal plan
for us and our families.
Peter was often rebuked by the One
he loved; he even denied the One he
loved; and when Jesus died, Peter gave
up on the One he loved and went back
to fishing. But Jesus called Peter back
from fishing and told him to feed His
sheep. And once again, we see Jesus
reshifting Peter’s focus from feeding the
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