And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." And Simon answered, "Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets."
Luke 5:4-5
Have you ever been in a situation where you gave a task or project everything you have, but it still failed? We all have at some point.
Failure is not only probable in life, it is expected to happen. Everyone will fail at some point. In fact, many times the probability of failing is higher than the probability of succeeding, and in such situations, we battle with ourselves over whether or not the fight is still worth fighting.
I don't know what kind of situation you are faced with right now, but without a shadow of a doubt, you are facing or have faced the ugliness of failure. Let me be the one to remind you once more today that Christians will fail. Being a Christian doesn't mean that your life will be perfect from the day you follow Jesus onwards.
We can all learn from the example of Simon Peter when he first encountered Jesus. In his story in Luke 5, the fisherman had just come from a lousy night of no catch. He had failed. During his time of failure, Jesus got on his boat. In the times we fail, the first thing we must remember is that Jesus has gotten on our boats and that makes a big difference already.
After teaching, Jesus then instructed Simon Peter to cast his nets down one more time. Peter could have been the one to say, "what do you know about fishing? I'm the expert here." Often, we find ourselves in the same spot, trying to show Jesus who's boss, but we must be assured that He knows what He's talking about.
What really catches my attention in this scripture is the way Simon Peter responded. He said, "Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets." Two things he did here: He acknowledged his strength and efforts ("we toiled all night") and realized His own strength brought him no results ("and took nothing").
Then Simon Peter responded in surrender, saying "But at your word I will let down the nets." In times of failure, Jesus calls us to surrender to His word, even if sometimes it doesn't make sense.
In John 7:37, Jesus says, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink." Jesus is calling those who are thirsty and failing to come to Him.
Are you failing right now? Is Jesus on your boat? What is He calling you to do? Are you obeying even if it makes no sense?
