Sufficient

April 2

Deuteronomy 2-3

Psalm 39:7-13

Proverbs 10:3-5

Luke 5

Sufficient

“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.’  When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.”  Luke 5:4-6 NIV

Can’t you just picture this exchange between Jesus and Peter?  Jesus, the carpenter turned preacher, is telling Peter, the fisherman, how to fish.  Peter’s reaction is priceless.  I would love to have heard the words he spoke because I’ll bet they had some skepticism, maybe even a little sarcasm in their tone.  “Ok Jesus, we have been fishing all night and haven’t caught anything.  We are tired and ready to go home.  You know we’ve been doing this a long time and we are pretty good at it, but if You say so, we’ll put our nets back out.”  I don’t mean to be critical of Peter.  Believe me, I am sure I would have reacted the same way.  And at least Peter obeyed Jesus.  I might have been tempted to explain to Him why there were no fish in that area and how we would be better off waiting a couple of days or going to a different spot.  Peter said, “At Your word, I will let down the nets.”

While we can learn from Peter’s obedience, I don’t want us to miss another important lesson from this story.  Let’s examine why Jesus chose to do this miracle.  This was not an afterthought.  When He finished speaking, I don’t think He suddenly decided He was hungry and wanted some fish, so He told them to go fishing.  Jesus knew His time was limited.  He was purposeful about everything He did, and I believe this is no exception.  Jesus was showing the disciples that He alone is sufficient to meet all their needs.  We know we need His help in the areas where we are weak, but in the areas where we are strong, the things that we are good at, we think we don’t really need His help.  We will let Him focus on our weaknesses.  We don’t want to ask Him for too much.  After all, He might get tired of us asking so we better save up for the times we really need Him.  Right?  Jesus was showing Peter and his friends that even in the things we think we are good at, He is better.  He wants to help us in everything.  Even in the areas where we think we are sufficient; we are going to have a bad night when we don’t catch any fish.  But He is sufficient to meet all our needs.  Always!