Is God Calling You To Try Again? A Look At Fishing With Peter In The Bible

In this season, at this moment Peter in the Bible had given up -in this season that boat represented all of his frustration and disappointment. So when Jesus comes walking along the shore He finds the boats temporarily abandoned and the fisherman mending their nets.

It’s ok to step back, to take a moment and clean and repair your nets, to refuel- as long as you get back out there.

Is He Calling You Back To The Boat? 

The story goes on to say that the crowd eagerly crowding around Jesus, hungry to hear His words, desperate to touch even the hem of his garment -when was the last time we were that desperate to be with Him?- that he found himself pushed to the very edge of the shore, and in the middle of all that noise, with the crowd pressing in on all sides, right in the midst of all that chaos Jesus saw Peter in the Bible and his boat. One fisherman who’d had a bad night.

There is so much hope in that verse- despite all of those people, despite the noise, the voices calling for Jesus’s attention He saw Simon- and He sees you. You lost in the middle of your own storm, He sees you and He cares. He cares about every little thing that touches your life if He didn’t care He never would have seen Peter in the Bible in that crowd preparing to try again.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m disappointed and frustrated people around me know it. Jesus knew what had transpired on that lake, He knew the frustration Simon was feeling, the disappointment that clung to Him, He knew the weary thoughts that were bouncing around Simon’s head and the Bible says that Jesus approached and stepped into Peter in the Bible’s boat. He stepped into the very thing that represented Peter’s disappointment and frustration and sat down.

I can’t help but think about another boat scene that we are told about in scripture, the disciples had spent the night straining against a mighty storm- and Jesus got into their boat and the storm became still. We serve a God who comes to us. Who steps into the midst of our storm, into our abandoned boats. He comes and meets us right in the middle of our need. He doesn’t demand we come to Him- He races to us and scoops us up into His loving arms, He steps into our mess, and plucks us from the waves. Encouraging us all the while to try again.

We serve a God who spoke the world into existence, and still finds time to meet us right where we are. A God who takes what we think is worthless, and turns it into a platform to proclaim His goodness to the world.

When Jesus had finished speaking the Bible says He told Peter in the Bible and his fellow fishermen to push out into deeper water and let down their nets. Simon’s response is so honest you can almost hear his weary sigh- When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” Luke 5:4-5 NIV

But because you say so… can you feel the sigh in there? The doubt, the admission of his frustration as agrees to try again.

Have you ever noticed how God likes to take the very thing we want to get away from, the places we wish we could have skipped and He steps into them? He turns the useless, worthless place into a megaphone to tell the world about Him. God called Simon back to the boat he’d abandoned and then used that boat to teach others.

Now as Simon pushes out into the deeper water following Jesus’s directions -directions that flew in the face of all of his experience. You didn’t fish in deep water, and certainly not in the middle of the day- to try again. I can’t help but wonder if he stole a look back at the shore to see if any of his buddies had noticed them letting down their nets.

If you’ve ever heard the voice of God, you know that sometimes it doesn’t make sense– it goes against our instincts and asks us to do what the world calls foolish. To try again even though to our eyes it looks like nothing has changed. Like building an ark when no one even knows what rain is, the bible is full to the brim of examples. We find ourselves called toward deep water in much the same boat as Simon when He replies “But because you say so, I will…”

I think sometimes God lets the decks of our lives be emptied of what we want to fill it with so that there is room for His stuff. If Peter in the Bible had caught the fish he thought he should have been catching there would have been no room for Jesus.

Maybe those places of hurt, of disappointment, of frustration, those places where you feel like you’ve failed- those situations that you’ve invested and invested yourself in only to have little or nothing to show for it. Those moments where we’ve drug our nets back to shore exhausted are the divine set up for Jesus to show up on the shore of your life, step into the very thing we wanted so desperately to get away from, and turn it into something great. A living breathing testament of what happens when He invades the life of someone sold out for Him.

He takes the broken, frustrated, abandoned, wind-tossed pieces and fits them back together, filling it with Himself and uses it to show others His goodness. If He’s leaving a hole in your life- don’t worry he hasn’t missed a piece. He hasn’t forgotten you in the midst of the crowd. He’s simply going to fill that place with Himself. Give Him your abandoned boats and watch what He does with them. Follow Him out into the deep water, the risky places- you are far better off with Him in deep water than in the shallows where you can stand on your own. He’s got you. Trust Him, get back into the boat and try again.