Luke 5:5-7 (NIV) 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. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

When the time is ripe for Jesus to bless you, you will be blessed! I say that because sometimes we are not quite ready for His blessing. When we are not fully devoted to Jesus, we tend to focus on the blessings and forget about Him. But if you are ready, you better get ready for what will come!

One day, Peter set out on a normal night of fishing and he got skunked. That’s fishermen’s language that means that he didn’t catch a single fish. Enter Jesus onto the scene as a weary Peter got back from the fruitless fishing trip. He told Peter to go back out to deep water and try again. Peter tried to let Jesus know in a gentle way that it was kind of useless to go out again, but because it was Jesus asking him to do it, he obeyed even though he thought it was a waste of time. As soon as he and his brother let down the nets, fish came from seemingly nowhere and kamikazed into the fishing nets. They didn’t have to drag the nets as they usually did but instead, the fish just volunteered themselves to be caught. There were so many that became eager to be caught that in the process of bringing the nets onto the boat, the boat began sinking under the weight. Peter called his partners, James and John (who were in another boat), to come to help him and when they took the overflow of fish into their boat, it began sinking under the weight as well. Their boats were sinking under the weight of the blessing that Jesus bestowed on them! If a boat is going to sink, that’s the best way for it to do so!

But they wound up making it back to shore and when they did, they realized that Jesus was even greater than they had been thinking. He was greater than a great teacher or an anointed and gifted speaker. This was God territory and Peter was brought to his knees at the thought of who Jesus actually was. Jesus is still all of what He was then and still loves to bless His people abundantly. If we stay close to Him and learn to obey Him even when what He tells us to do doesn’t make much sense, we, too, will experience the abundant blessings that He has planned for us. We will experience being overwhelmed as Peter was by the magnitude of the blessing when we are able to handle it, as Jesus always does immeasurably more than we ask or can even imagine (Ephesians 3:20). Get your boat ready for an overwhelming catch as you listen to and obey Jesus!

Pastor Joey Vazquez