“Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.” – Luke 5:5
Have you ever been in a position where you’ve worked really hard towards a goal that led nowhere or reaped little to no reward? It can be very demoralising and discouraging especially when you can’t figure out what you are doing wrong. This passage (read Luke 5:1-7) about Simons’ experience with Jesus is very profound and there are 2 main points we can learn from this.
1. Simon started off by doing exactly what Jesus asked him to do. No questions asked! (see verses 1-3).
This first part is very important because it is very easy to fall into the trap of having tunnel vision when living our everyday lives, keeping God to one corner and only approaching Him when we need help. But how many times do we start our day asking God what He wants us to do for Him (what his will is for our lives each day)? The Bible says that we should “Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and He will give you everything that you need”. -Matthew 6:33
Sometimes the solution to our problems is as simple as making God and his will a priority in our lives every day.
2. He obeyed Jesus’ instruction even though he didn’t think it would work. (see verse 4)
We need to understand that fishing was Simon’s job, meaning he was an expert in that area and probably knew all that there was to know about fishing and being successful at it. So you could imagine the shock he probably felt when Jesus, the son of a carpenter, asked him to cast his nets after he and his fellow fishermen were unsuccessful in fishing all night. Simon could have easily chosen to act in his own wisdom and inform Jesus that it was highly unlikely to be successful and call it a day. Not to mention he was probably tired and discouraged from his wasted efforts the previous night and could have also declined because he did not feel like it. However, instead of dwelling on his feelings and acting based on his own knowledge and understanding, he chose to obey Jesus.
Sometimes, what stands between us and success is a lack of obedience and trust in God above our own understanding.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says: “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.”
So the challenge for us today is to put God first in everything that we do and to walk in obedience even when it doesn’t make sense and especially when we do not feel like it!
