05 February 2014

Cast your net!

At the international student Bible Study on Friday night, we studied the story of Jesus telling His (future) disciples to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. These were simple fishermen who had been working all day without any luck. To their surprise, they caught a huge amount of fish. Astonished, Peter recognized Jesus' lordship. Jesus responded by telling them to follow Him, and He would make them fishers of men. 

We asked how Peter probably felt when God told him to just cast the net on the other side.

"Frustrated," was a common answer. 

After all, he had been fishing all day. Come on. There's no reason the fish would just magically appear and flock to the other side of the boat. It was unreasonable, but Jesus said it, they did it, and the results were more than they ever could have imagined--let alone caught on their own.

I felt like God spoke directly to me through that. 

If I do ministry my way, I can fish all day and catch nothing. That's frustrating. The Spirit's instructions to "cast my net on the other side" can seem unreasonable and ridiculous. But if I will just obey, if I will just take Him at His Word, I will truly bear fruit---more than ever before!