Trusting God When Fortitude Fails You

My father loved to fish. Many of the pictures I have of him are him holding fish, or fishing, or standing by water getting ready to fish. One of my favorite memories was fishing with him. I was sitting on a dock and my dad had made me a fishing pole. This custom made treasure was created by tying string and a hook to a long skinny branch. He seemed surprised that I caught a fish. Then I caught another one, and another one. Of course they were small and went right back into the water. I may have caught the same fish four or five times!

(Do you ever feel you’ve been caught by the same hook over and over? That’s a post for another time.)

When I was bored with the fishing pole I started playing with the net. I hung over the side and dragged it through the water. Suddenly there were two larger fish but I couldn’t lift them. I didn’t want big fish anyway so I shook them out of the net. I don’t know why the fish literally swam into the net for me but I am pretty sure my dad would have wanted to know. I never did tell him. And I definitely didn’t tell him I let them go.

I had limited my catch to small fish. We often put limits on ourselves. We may feel that we are only deserving of the small things. Maybe we feel we are unworthy for the big blessing. Maybe we want a blessing but don’t know where to look.

After a night of fishing Peter and the disciples had caught nothing. At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach. He asked if they had caught any fish and they had not. After a long night fishing in the same place with no success, Jesus instructed them to try again.

“He said to them,“Throw the net off the right side of the boat, and you’ll find some.” So they threw the net, and they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish.” John 21:6 TLV

The disciples brought the boat to shore dragging the net full of fish.

“Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net to shore. There were 153 fish, many of them big; but the net was not broken.” John 21:11 TLV

The net was full with an abundance of fish yet it did not break. Jesus wants to bless us abundantly. He wants us to look for Him for guidance. We spend long exhausting nights trying to make blessings happen. Jesus wants our nets to overflow.

If we do not live our lives in His Word, we may not recognize His instruction. We can cast net after net using our known ways and means; but Jesus can bless us with more than we can imagine.

Don’t shake the big blessings out of the net, instead get more nets.