Success or Failure?

Master, we have fished all night and haven't caught anything, but because you say so I will let down the nets. Luke 5:5

As I meditated on this story of the huge catch the disciples  took after Jesus had used their boat as a teaching platform, a funny scene that came back to mind.  It's from the madcap comedy Knight & Day where Tom Cruise is on the run.  Somehow Cameron Diaz gets caught up with him and at one crucial moment Tom calls on her to make a choice; to join the run with this crazy guy (and probably escape the other crazies who were after them) or whether to leave him to his adventures and hope to escape with her life.  In this funny scene Tom gesticulates the possibility of her life expectancy with him or without him to her saying "With me (raises his hand high indicating she will do well with him), without me"' (lowers his hand). He says, "With me, without me, with me, without me?"  She chooses to go with him through a crazy chase and, of course escapes with her life.

The story of the disciples reminds me of the success or failure we choose whether we choose to do it with Jesus or without Him.  They had been fishing all night and caught nothing, Jesus borrows their boat then, in payment, tells them to launch out into the deep, which they do, and catch a huge and unexpected haul.  In the time after Jesus' resurrection we read of a similar story.  Peter decided to go fishing, reverting to the thing that he knew how to do on his own.  The others went with him.  Again they fished all night and caught nothing, but when Jesus (though they didn't recognise it was He),  called to them from the shore asking if they had caught anything they admitted that they had not.  He called out, "Let your net down on the right side of the boat and you will get a catch,"(John 21).  They did as he said and made a huge haul.  Immediately John recognised it was Jesus and impulsive Peter jumped out of the boat and headed for the shore and his beloved Friend and Master.

You see a Peter knew that with Jesus, people got healed, fed and encouraged and nets got filled supernaturally.  When we try to carry out God's tasks in our own strength (without Him), things don't go nearly as well as they do if we do them with Him.  God never meant us to operate alone.  He always planned that He would be our source of strength, help and supply.  Dependence upon Him is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of maturity and spiritual wisdom.

Is there something you are doing at the moment, something you are trying to make happen in your time and strength?  Perhaps you are getting frustrated because nothing seems to be working. Why not re-evaluate and ask your Heavenly Father if He'd like to be involved.  The Bible tells us in Psalm 37:5 Commit your way to the Lord and he will bring it to pass."  It may not be in your timing or in quite the way you expected but He is faithful when we entrust our stuff to Him.

With Him, without Him. Your choice!

Prayer:  Father, please show me when I go off doing my own thing without consulting you.  Forgive me when I do it in my ministry too and things become a burden because I don't hitch up to your yoke which can make my burden so much lighter and tasks more fruitful.  Help me to recognise the signs quickly when I get off track.  Amen