How Can This Be?
Have you ever been in a situation where you wanted something so badly or felt that God was calling you to a task, but no matter how you looked at it, you simply could not see how it would be accomplished? I think this is one of the challenges in a Christian’s walk. Knowing that God can complete tasks according to His will, and yet our minds cannot understand how it can be done. How wonderful it is though, that we are not alone in our questioning. Take a look at Peter in Luke 5:3-9.
“And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little distance from the land. And He sat down and continued teaching the crowds from the boat. 4 Now when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 Simon responded and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they caught a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to tear; 7 so they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, to the point that they were sinking.8 But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” 9 For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken;”
Jesus was in the boats preaching the word of God to a crowd that held the first of His disciples. The man whose boat He was in was already tired from working all the night before, this man (Peter) knew there were no fish nearby and points this out to Jesus. Essentially Peter was telling Jesus that he knew there was nothing to catch where they were at, but because of his willingness to follow Jesus’s direction he would obey. I am sure the men in that boat were astounded once they started to feel the fish getting caught in their nets and we see this with Peter’s reaction in verse eight.
Many point to this verse to describe how Peter and the sons of Zebedee became Jesus’s disciples, but I think there is another aspect to this situation. Peter would not have known that his nets would be filled, in fact I am sure he expected to pull up an empty net or maybe just one or two fish that happened to be caught in it. And yet, the amount of fish he pulled up nearly sank his boat! Peter had no way of knowing the reason for Jesus to tell him to lower the net, but he did it anyway. He was so willing to follow Jesus’s command even though Peter already believed he knew what the outcome would be. And this is the trait that we need to have in our walk with God. What seems to be impossible for us, or a situation that we believe we already know the outcome of, can be changed simply because it is what God needs to complete His will. If we are faced with something that we know God is calling us to do but to us seems hopeless or foolish, we should not hesitate. We should respond as Peter did, admit that we don’t understand but be willing to follow. When we do this, we will be just as surprised by the outcome!
Seek the truth and encourage one another,
Alex