"Nevertheless At Thy Word"

Simon Peter and his friends were tired. They had spent the entire night fishing and had nothing to show for their efforts. It was probably not the first time. They were seasoned fishermen and a night like that was par for the course. Having secured their boats they were now washing their nets, no doubt getting ready for their next trip out whenever that would be.

It was against this backdrop that Jesus, in a bid to teach the people pressing "upon him to hear the word of God", found it necessary to use one of the boats from which he would teach. After teaching, he spoke words to Peter that right after a night of fishing without a catch, would test the resolve of most men: "Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught" (Luke 5:4, KJV), to which Peter replied, "Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net" (v.5). The result was immediate. "And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. 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. 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" (vv. 6-10a).

There are a number of important lessons for the believer in this narrative, among them are 1) In our own efforts we won't accomplish much, 2) Success is wrapped up in obeying the Word of God, and 3) Our success is limited to the degree to which we follow God's instructions.

As we go about our day to day living, these are very important lessons to keep in the front of our minds. Making the decision to follow Christ does not automatically translate into surrendering our lives to His Lordship, and so out of habit and comfortability we manage our own life and affairs without His direction. However, like the experience of the fishermen that night, that could be an unproductive way of doing things. Unless we include Him and His way of doing things, everything we do is in vain (Psalm 127:1). It is important to note that though the fishermen experienced success, it was limited because they did not follow Jesus' instructions fully, maybe because of tiredness or immature faith. Jesus told Peter to "let down your nets", to which he replied "I will let down the net". There is a huge difference between "nets" and "net", and so the net they used broke because it was not big enough for the catch.

The majority of us are no different than those men. God is able to do for us far more than we can ask or think (Ephesians 3:20), but we need to learn to do as He says, and more importantly, to let go and let Him. It can be frightening, but "nevertheless at thy word". Isn't today a good time to start putting that into practice?