Go Fish

I wish I could say that every plan and decision I’ve made has been spot-on correct.  However, some endeavors and pursuits haven’t all worked out quite the way I wanted.  Somewhere in my genius scheming of things I thought my way the best, and totally ignored (or didn’t recognize) God’s voice.  Without fail, of course, my scheme didn’t pan out because God wasn’t in it.  I was a few brain cells short of God’s all-knowing cranium.  It was decisive proof that I wasn’t as smart as I thought.

When it comes to problem-solving, God is the best.  Unfortunately for us, we have a hard time getting past our understanding and seeing things like He sees them.  Take for instance Simon and his big catch of fish in Luke 5.

Jesus needed a boat to use as His platform as He preached to the crowds of people on the shore.  Once finished with His teaching, He told Simon to go farther into the lake to catch fish.  Simon was quick to inform Jesus that they had fished all night and caught absolutely nothing.  Nothing.  What would be the sense of going out again when you had already spent your energy staying up all night?  Logic would say to stay close to shore, clean the nets, and take a nap.  At least then there was a chance that the fish would accumulate again for perhaps one night of successful fishing.

It’s so easy to respond to God’s instructions with a giant, “But God . . .” From our point of view, His instructions often seem pointless.  Doesn’t He realize that it doesn’t even make sense?  Doesn’t He understand how difficult His orders would be to carry out?  From our point of view, God seems totally off His rocker.

That’s when we should be reminded of Isaiah 55:8-9: “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’ ”

How can His ways and thoughts be so much greater and higher than ours?  It’s because He doesn’t have a finite body that can only see the world through limited eyeballs and limited brain cells.  He’s God, all-powerful and all-knowing.  He can make anything happen at a moment’s noticed because He’s not limited by the natural.  He’s supernatural and sees the world through supernatural eyes.

Thankfully, Simon had at least a small revelation of this.  Instead of arguing the sensibility of Jesus’ command, he went on to say, “Nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.”  But he didn’t stop there.  Luke 5:6 says he actually put some action behind his words.  Instead of simply agreeing from his head or with his mouth, Simon obeyed.  The result was two boats full of fish to the point of sinking, far more than he would have gotten on a normal night of fishing.

Going fishing is only difficult when we forget who’s in charge of the operation.  The moment we step out in faith and obedience, God is able to work a miracle that only He could perform.  He promises that it will happen, not because it makes sense to our minds, but because He said it would happen.  God’s way of scheming always works!

“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:10-11