“And Simon answered, ‘Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.’ And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.” – Luke 5:5-6
The primary focus of this passage is on Jesus revealing His divine knowledge and power over nature in a dramatic fashion as He calls Simon Peter into discipleship and ministry. However, these verses also vividly illustrate the difference between working really hard in our own strength and abilities and laboring in Jesus.
Simon and his associates had exhausted themselves fishing all night long with no results. Their frustration and perhaps even financial anxiety must have been huge! However, when Simon let down the nets where, when, and how Jesus had already been working, the outcome was dramatically different!
Often in our lives as Christians, we find ourselves working REALLY hard at things we believe to be Kingdom-building or Christ-honoring. We grow exhausted, frustrated, and perhaps even burned out as we serve the church, the Kingdom, or our community. In these moments, we must ask ourselves, were we truly working WITH Jesus? Or were we trying to impress Jesus, or the watching world, with our skills, smarts, strength, words, or accomplishments?
Jesus invites each of us to yoke ourselves to Him and labor alongside Him. But is that actually how we’re working? In our work, is Jesus leading, guiding, and doing the heavy lifting? Or are we trying to do all those things, while praying for Jesus to show up and bless our work? There’s a huge difference, but we can be blind to it in the moment. When we find ourselves growing exhausted, frustrated, and even bitter toward Jesus, we must stop and ask who we’re really letting do the work!