Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. [Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)]
After using Peter’s boat as a preaching platform, Jesus told him to take the boat out to deeper water and let down his nets. Fishing was a way of life in Galilee and Peter, Andrew, James, and John probably started fishing with their fathers when they were just youngsters. Can you imagine their reaction to this inexperienced carpenter’s son from Nazareth telling them how to fish? Didn’t the rabbi know that net fishing was done at night when the fish were more active and less likely to see the linen nets? Having fished all night, the men were tired. By that time, they’d cleaned their nets and hung them to dry; they were ready to go home, eat, and get some sleep. Experience told them that if they’d caught nothing that night, they certainly weren’t going to catch anything in the light of day! Nevertheless, even though Peter balked at Jesus’ unusual command, he and his partners reloaded their gear, took out their boats, and let down their nets.
Fishing in deep water was done with a rectangular 3-layered, 500-foot, five-sectioned trammel net and two boats were used. After the first boat stealthily dropped the nets, the second would cause such a commotion with noise and splashing that the frightened fish would flee into the nets and get trapped in the inner mesh. The previous night, the men probably dropped and raised the trammel fifteen times to no avail but, that morning, their nets became so full of fish that they began to tear. The second boat was needed to hold the overflowing nets and both boats were on the verge of sinking from the weight. It seems that Jesus rewarded Peter and his partners quite handsomely for the use of Peter’s boat and their obedience to his instructions!
The second time Jesus told these experienced fishermen how to fish occurred after His resurrection. The men had spent an entire night casting their net with nothing to show for it when Jesus called from the shore and told them to cast it from the right side of the boat. Again, Jesus’ directions made no sense. Any fisherman knows that changing a net’s location by only a few feet won’t change the outcome—if the fish aren’t on the left side of the boat, they’re not on the right. Moreover, a net never was cast from the starboard side where the rudder mechanism was located. When pulling it up, the net could get tangled in the steering board, damage the boat, and tear. Nevertheless, the disciples did as Jesus directed, dropped it on the right side, and had another miraculous catch—one so heavy that, unable to haul the net into the boat, they had to drag it into shore!
These two stories demonstrate the obedience of faith along with the blessings that accompany obedience. Jesus’ fishing instructions weren’t just unconventional to the seasoned fishermen, they seemed unreasonable and imprudent. Nevertheless, the disciples trusted in the Lord rather than their own wisdom, left the results to Him, and were blessed with more than they could have imagined or hoped for.
We don’t have to understand the why of God’s directions, we must simply trust and obey Him! These stories tell us that faith-fueled obedience yields blessings. Rather than a boatload of fish, however, it will be a boatload of blessings beyond our wildest expectations both in this world and the next! As the old hymn says: “Trust and obey, For there’s no other way, To be happy in Jesus, But to trust and obey.” [John Henry Sammis]
The Bible recognizes no faith that does not lead to obedience, nor does it recognize any obedience that does not spring from faith. The two are at opposite sides of the same coin.[A.W. Tozer]
In Sharon Garlough Brown’s novel, Two Steps Forward, a character choses to pray the Hebrew word hineni during Advent. When another character calls it a beautiful but “costly” prayer, I grew curious about this word. Hineni is composed of two little words, hineh and ani. By itself, hineh is usually translated as “behold” but, when combined with ani (meaning “I”), it usually is translated as “Here I am,” “I’m here,” or “Yes.” However, like shalom, the Hebrew hineni loses the depth of its meaning in translation.
In what’s known as the Abrahamic covenant, God promised Abram (later called Abraham) that he would found a great nation and that through him all nations would be blessed. After receiving God’s promise, Abraham departed Haran, arrived in Canaan, went to Egypt to escape a famine, returned to Bethel, separated from Lot, and rescued him from King Kedorlaomer. In those ten years, however, despite God’s promise, Abraham’s wife Sarai (later known as Sarah) had not become pregnant. When he grew despondent that he was without an heir, God repeated his promise of a son through Sarah and reassured Abraham of as many descendants as there were stars in the sky.
While reading about David and Goliath, I realized that it’s not just our seniors who can be undervalued or overlooked. It’s as wrong to disregard the youth in our midst as it is to discount the old. Likewise, just as some seniors may underestimate their gifts, the same could be said for those who still count the years rather than the decades! Age is just a number to God—He’s more interested in willing hearts than number of years!
It’s been said that Leonardo da Vinci’s last words were, “I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.” A scientist, painter, architect, mathematician, musician, sculptor, geologist, botanist, historian, cartographer, and inventor, da Vinci was a true Renaissance man and it’s difficult to understand how he could feel he failed God or anyone else.
When I learned about people like Abraham, David, Moses, and Samson as a girl, they were the Bible’s version of super-heroes like Batman or Superman. The Bible’s heroes were larger than life, obedient, invincible, and seemed to overcome their obstacles effortlessly. Appearing perfect in their faith and actions, they weren’t people to whom I could relate. In reality, they were as flawed as the rest of us but, for the most part, their imperfections and failures were redacted from the stories we learned in Sunday school.
Devotions of the Heart 