Meditation for Monday
Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. John 21:3
We can all recite John 3:16, and have been able to do so for most of our lives. We have all heard of Christians who regard that great verse as an important part of God’s dealings in bringing them to salvation. And we have all heard Gospel messages – some of us have even preached them – on John 3:16. We all know how that verse is termed the Gospel in a nutshell. Within that verse is so much truth concerning the Gospel that it well deserves such a title. In contrast, today’s text could well be termed frustration in a nutshell, because it encapsulates so much of what it takes to be a flop in being a disciple of the Lord Jesus.
Did you notice that despite being gathered with the other disciples, Peter makes a declaration concerning his own intentions: I go a fishing? Effective service for Christ never begins with I. In fact, it doesn’t even begin with we. It begins with He. Peter had plans and intentions, and he sought no direction from the Lord in following them through. How could he possibly have expected to succeed in his chosen project? But he was just like us; we also take major steps along our Christian pathway in our own personal agendas, without seeking the mind and direction of the Lord. It won’t work; it didn’t for Peter and his companions, and it won’t for us today. We can expect to catch nothing.
Peter’s resolve to set out on his own agenda had a direct impact on those around him. His confident and dominant personality cause the others to jump on his bandwagon. They had no real reason to doubt his intentions. They would probably have thought Peter would know what he was doing, and would be heading in the right direction. They were wrong, but they didn’t know that. They were headed for disappointment, because they allowed someone to take the lead who failed to take his leadership from the Lord.
Another failure in Peter’s misguided mission was to work at night. As an experienced fisherman, he would know that night fishing used to work, before he was called to be a fisher of men. Everything was changed, and His Lord had reminded him many times that He was the Light of the world. Peter returned to his old style of operation, and the nets remained empty. You and i can also expect to see little results if we use the methods of our old days, the methods of the world, the style of operation that used to work when we didn’t need to consider how the Lord wants us to behave and function.
As fishers of men, we will catch nothing if we go according to our ideas and plans; we need to take our direction from the Lord, not Peter. -Jim MacIntosh