Day 16 – Fit For Life Challenge

Good morning! ☀️ It’s Day 16!

In keeping with our ocean theme, there’s another story that I want to talk about this morning. If you read the post yesterday, you know we read about Peter getting out of the boat. Today, we will look at another encounter that Peter had with Jesus. We find it in John 21.

After Jesus had been crucified and resurrected, he had already appeared to the disciples, proving that he was alive, but in this occasion they didn’t recognize him. Now you know that the night before Jesus was killed, Peter denied knowing Jesus three times. He felt the weight of disappointment with himself. He may have felt like he was disqualified for leadership after that. He may have felt like a failure. The obvious question for Peter was, “What now?”. He probably wasn’t sure what to do anymore, so he decided to go back and do what he did before he met Jesus….fish. He was a fisherman. So on this evening, Peter told the others he was going fishing. So they went with him. They fished all night and caught nothing. Now these guys knew how to fish, but still they didn’t catch anything all night. In the morning, Jesus was standing on the shore and he called out to them and asked if they’d caught anything. Now they didn’t recognize him. They just answered him and told him that they hadn’t caught anything. Then Jesus said to throw their nets on the other side of the boat instead and they would find some fish.

These guys had to know that if there hadn’t been any fish on one side of the boat , there probably weren’t going to be any on the other side. But they still did what Jesus said and they caught so many fish they could hardly pull the nets in! They had been fishing all night with nothing to show for it, but when they did it the way Jesus told them to, the nets were about to break they were so full of fish!
Have you ever had an experience like this where you were working so hard at something, trying your best, but no success. Maybe you were or are about to give up. Even when things aren’t going well, we tend to keep trying the same things.
It wasn’t until they were willing to try something new did they recognize that it was Jesus calling to them. Maybe He is calling you to do something different. Remember he didn’t tell them to get a new boat or new nets. He just wanted them to use what they had..their experience and their skills according to his way. It wasn’t so much about trying harder, and it certainly wasn’t about the amount of fish they caught, as it was about hearing Jesus’ call and doing it His way. That’s when they were fruitful, that’s when they recognized that it was Jesus working. But Jesus wasn’t just showing Peter how to be a better fisherman, he had something different planned for him. Shortly after this, Jesus calls Peter to leadership in the early church. This experience wasn’t about showing Peter how to catch more fish, this was an object lesson in following Christ. After Peter probably felt like a failure, Jesus showed him his only qualification was to hear His call, and follow.

I know in my life, many times I’ve done things my own way and it proved fruitless. No results or no success. That’s when I’m doing things my way.. outside of His will.
Everyone’s life story is different. We all have unique talents, passions, skills and experiences. So your relationship with God will be unique as well. Like in the story, maybe God is showing you something in your life that needs change. Maybe you should be open to trying something different. The main thing is… tying it back to yesterday’s post.. we have to keep our eyes on Jesus and not get distracted by comparing our story to someone else’s, or past failures. When Peter realized his inadequacy apart from Christ, he became a rock-solid leader. If you follow his story, you find out that he did keep his eyes on Christ and followed him…and many, many others followed too.

Action Step 16👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼
Be open to change in your life. Keep your eyes on God and follow his leadership. He’s not keeping his will hidden from us, the key is not letting distractions divert our attention. Go for a walk or run today and just be alone in your thoughts. Keep moving! Keep your eyes on Him! Have a great day y’all!