February 25, 2010

But Master...
By Os Hillman

February 25

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" (Luke 5:5).

Have you ever argued with God? One of the first sermons Jesus ever gave
was from a boat. It was Simon Peter's boat. Jesus used a businessman's
business to preach the Gospel. However, Peter had to first make his
business available to the Master. When he did, something wonderful
happened to his business.

You see, Peter's fishing business was in a slump. They had just fished
all night and caught nothing. Nevertheless, Peter made his boat
available to Jesus to use as He wished. Jesus used it to preach to the
multitudes. After Jesus used Peter's boat for His purposes Jesus did
something interesting for Peter. He blessed his business. However, Peter
almost missed the blessing because he began to argue with Jesus. Peter
was looking at the market conditions instead of the instruction of
Jesus. Something inside of him made him reconsider Jesus' instruction.
Jesus rewarded his obedience. "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?" (Luke 5:6-7).

We see a number of Kingdom principles we can apply in our work lives in
this story. 1) We must be willing to let God use our work life for His
purposes. 2) We must not look at circumstances and argue with Jesus when
His instruction seems to contradict what we have seen or experienced
already. 3) We must obey the Lord.

When we obey the Lord we might just see Jesus use us for His glory and
bless our obedience.