2-12-2018

Good Morning All,

     John 21:3; “Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.”

    Have you ever set out to accomplish something only to give up?  Most of us have.  Perhaps you were going to read the Bible from cover to cover and only made through Genesis 12.  Perhaps you were going to exercise every day and that lasted until Thursday.  There are a host of things that we attempt and then give up usually fairly quickly.

    This is what the disciples did.  They were wondering what to do and Peter decided to go fishing.  They went out in a boat and caught nothing.  So they came back to shore.  It was just one night.  But what happens if they were to do this for a week or so?  They were fishermen, this was their livelihood; it put food on the table. 

    There are times when we give up rather easily mostly because our heart isn’t in it.  But what happens when your heart is in it and you still end up like the disciples, up all night but catching nothing?  Maybe you have been trying to get a promotion at work, maybe you were trying to make the basketball team, maybe you have been trying to fix the relationship with a family member; you have tried and tried but you keep being up all night not catching anything.  It can be a struggle.

    When we struggle with people it is tough.  When we feel we are struggling with God, it can be even tougher.  We read the Bible over and over and God promises to hear our prayers and to answer them.  So after a long time of praying do we sometimes feel like we were up all night and caught nothing?  Maybe you are a parent or a grandparent that has been praying for a grandchild or a child and they just keep making bad decisions.  Maybe you are praying for a spouse who is struggling with an addiction and it never gets better.  Maybe you are praying for the health of a loved one, or maybe even your own but it just doesn’t seem to get better; we fish all night and catch nothing.

    It is times like this that we feel like giving up just like the disciples.  But just like the disciples, when we feel like quitting, Jesus is there to encourage us to keep trying.  We should never give up on love, on prayer, on hope or on the love of God for us.  Our time is not God’s time.  Our will is not always God’s will.  Sometimes when we pray, our prayers are really more self-centered than Christ centered.  Do we want someone to love us the way we want?  Do we pray that someone changes to fit our ideas?  Sometimes those prayers are not the answer we need.  So maybe we should pray for more empathy, more trust, more acceptance by us of the other person.  Maybe the real change has to occur in us rather than the other person. 

    God’s grace changes us.  He gives us the faith to live with that change.  We need to trust in his wisdom to lead us forward.  But we keep praying because as we do God is reaching us to.  We see our own inability to make these changes on our own so we look to God to guide us.  We need to continue to look to God and we need to pray that God will give to us the patience to wait for his will and the confidence to trust his will.  God has promised us his grace, keep fishing for it, you already have it.  But prayer keeps us in contact with our Father in heaven and helps us to see the providence of his hand.

Father of mercy, you give us what we need in due season.  Give us patience to accept your good gifts and to trust that you are always there to guide us, to comfort us and to give us your peace.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray.  Amen   

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret