Read Luke 5:1-11
v3: Jesus climbed into the boat belonging to Simon Peter and asked him, “Let me use your boat. Push it off a short distance away from the shore so I can speak to the crowds.
Many lessons can be learned from this story:
- Jesus wants to use our business as a platform.
Peter did not offer Jesus his boat as a platform so that he can have a huge catch of fish. It was our Lord who asked Peter for his boat to stand on so the crowd can hear and see Him. We don’t use our business as a platform for God to spread His message so that our business will be blessed. It is an honor and privilege to bring our Lord to our business or work and that is enough to give us joy. It should be in our nature to bring Jesus to our business. When we do, people will know Him through our actions and the service we provide.
- Jesus asked Peter to launch into deep water.
v. 4: “…..he said to Peter, “Now row out to deep water to cast your nets and you will have a great catch.”
Jesus could have performed a miracle right there and then in shallow waters. But then, He asked Peter to go to the deeper portion. We sometimes expect miracles to compensate for our reluctance to dig deeper, do more research, consult more, study more, plan more, work harder, improve our skills. God does not want his miracles to compensate for our mediocrity. In this story, Peter worked all night before he experienced a miracle.
- God is not bound by tradition or conventional wisdom
v5: “Master,” Peter replied, “we’ve just come back from fishing all night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you insist, we’ll go out again and let down our nets because of your word.”
As usual, Jesus went against the tradition. It was a tradition to fish only during the night. It was daytime and in Peter’s mind and that of other fishermen who were there, it was an odd time to expect a fish catch especially when they tried at night time and there was not a single catch of fish. Note the phrase “because of your word.” which tells us that when we obey God’s word, blessings follow. The Lord might be telling us something, but we cannot hear, because we think He is not interested at all in our business.
- A huge catch was made.
It cannot be denied that the huge catch of fish was a miracle. This time Peter did not just try to catch fish for his survival. He was obeying God to do a kind of work that pleases God. God wants us to involve Him in our work and work excellently. When we do, we see magnificent results. Our work will no longer be for survival, because there will be abundance which we can share with others. The result is people would know and be drawn to Jesus. Peter knelt before Jesus and acknowledged that He is the Messiah. Then he followed him. Jesus wants to perform a miracle in our lives. Those miracles make us commit to Him more fully and bring other people to Him.
- Jesus wants miracles to be shared.
Every miracle in the bible is meant to be bring people to God.
Two boats were full and almost sinking because of the weight of the catch. For sure they will just spoil if not shared. There were no freezers then.
From this story, we can say, that we cannot separate our business from God. He wants to be involved.
Miracles in our business, work or lives will happen because that is God’s nature. He is a miracle working God. In the same manner, it is should be our nature to bring Him to our business and lives, not because we want the miracle, but because of our relationship with Him and we cannot do without Him. In a right relationship with God, miracles become ordinary.
Do we allow God to perform miracles in our lives?
Boni de Jesus 