Casting your nets

 

Where are you casting your nets?

“Later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee.^[a] This is how it happened. ² Several of the disciples were there—Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin),^[b] Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples.

³ Simon Peter said, “I’m going fishing.”

“We’ll come, too,” they all said. So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night.

⁴ At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn’t see who he was. ⁵ He called out, “Fellows,^[c] have you caught any fish?”

“No,” they replied.

⁶ Then he said, “Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get some!” So they did, and they couldn’t haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.”

Sometimes we feel frustrated and discouraged. We’re working so hard in our lives to get things right but to no avail; like the disciples fishing all night long and catching nothing.

Peter had decided that day to go out and fish.

His heart was in a discouraged place. He was holding on to the fact that he had denied Christ, the son of God, three times.  After his death, Jesus appeared to his disciples saying “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” They were being commissioned.

They were being sent to be the salt and light to the world.

But Peter was holding onto something; regret and discouragement.  Sometimes it’s hard to hear when our hearts are clogged with those things.

Peter was focused on his shortcomings, mistakes and fears.

It says that he and the other disciples had been fishing all night long and caught nothing.

Nothing.

Jesus calls out to them and says something that changes everything.

“Cast the net on the right side of the boat.”

The implication is that they’ve been casting their nets on the other side of the boat and getting nowhere. (The “wrong” side)

Where are you casting your nets? Sometimes we live in our frustration, fears and discouragement; casting our nets in the wrong place.

Are we listening to Jesus? Are we attuned to His direction? Or are our ears clogged with the very things that clogged Peters that day?

Jesus had commissioned these very men to go out and be Jesus to the world as the Father had sent Him.

The next words are important as well. “Receive the Holy Spirit”! They are not doing this alone!

Then Jesus says “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

The sins of “any”……..sometimes that means even ourselves.

If we go to God with a repentant heart, He forgives us.

But sometimes we can’t forgive ourselves.

That’s where Peter was that day in the boat; casting his net haphazardly… because his focus on Christ was lost.

“Cast the net on the right side of the boat and you’ll find some”

And what happened? “They were unable to haul it in because of the large number of fish.”

Are you casting your net on the wrong side of the boat because you’re missing the voice of Christ in your life?

Are you missing the voice of Christ in your life because you have forgotten that you are forgiven?

“If you forgive the sins of (any)”…even you! "They are forgiven."

Pay attention also to the rest of that verse. “If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” If we fail to forgive others and even ourselves, our un-forgiveness takes up residence within us.

When it does that, our ability to see the “right” side of the boat disappears.

Before you “cast your net” into the world today, sit with Jesus. Listen for his voice. Listen for his direction.

Don’t live your lives on the wrong side of the boat.

 

-Pastor Patti