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Devotional - 03rd Feb 2022

 'And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him' (Luke 5:11).

Simon Peter and the sons of Zebedee forsook all and followed Jesus. They gave up their profession as fishermen to be fishers of men. Christ called these men and they responded to the call and became his disciples.
We see in the Gospel of Matthew and Mark where Jesus walked along the sea of Galilee and called Simon, Andrew, James and John. However, in the Gospel of Luke, it tells a story of a miraculous catch of fish preceding the call.
Simon had a long and rough night where he didn't caught any fish, and was at the point of exhaustion, when Jesus after teaching the people, asked him to launch out into the deep and let his net down for a catch. He believed it was futile being an experience  fisherman, but did what Jesus asked, and what a miraculous catch! He had to call his partners to come with their boats to take some of the fish. The nets began to break and boats sinking under the weight of fish.
Simon was overwhelmed with fear and amazement, sensing he was in the presence of divine power. He then responded by kneeling at Jesus' feet and begging Him to leave him be, because he was a sinful man (5:6-8).
For Simon Peter meeting Christ changed everything, he became aware of his own sinfulness and unworthiness. Jesus let him know, his profession had changed to being fishers of men in God's mission for saving souls.
How did your life change when you first encountered Christ? When we meet Jesus our lives should not be the same again.
Jesus meet us where we are and call us to service. He calls imperfect people and to do his work, then work on shaping them into faithful servants. As Simon Peter resisted Christ at first, because He felt unworthy, we too resist Jesus' claim on our lives, because sometimes the call doesn't seem practical, or it doesn't seem to be making sense. We today are called by virtue of baptism to participate in God's mission to the world in Christ.
We are called to prioritise and align our will with God's will and prioritise to use the gifts he has given us in service to others, in sharing the good news of salvation.
Jesus is saying to us, as He did to Simon Peter: "Don't be afraid." Let us trust that Christ will keep working with us and through us to "catch" others, as he has caught us. Let us show others God's love and mercy as we come out of our comfort zone and enter into the deep with Christ.

Have a wonderful day

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