Trusting Jesus with the Impossible (Luke 5:4)

And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
– Luke 5:4

Ah, this is such a good verse and such a good story. So Simon Peter and these disciples have been trying to catch fish all night long, and nothing has happened. It’s been totally empty. And so Jesus comes up, and He actually gets into a boat, and He starts teaching people from the boat because all these crowds are there on the shore. Then He looks at Simon and says, “Put out into the deep, let down your nets for a catch”. And Simon immediately answers. He said, “Master, we toiled all night. We took nothing”. In other words, we’ve tried and it’s not gotten us anywhere. But then he says, “But at Your word”, in other words, because You said so, I’m going to let down the nets.

Luke 5:4 calls us to trust and obey Jesus even when we don’t understand.

And when they did that, the Bible says they enclosed a large number of fish. Their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners and the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats. So they began to sink. Jesus calling Simon to do that which didn’t make sense to him, but Simon did it because he trusted what Jesus said.

And it led to a blessing, to boats full of fish like he never could have imagined. And as I read this verse, as we think about this story, I just want to encourage you today to trust and obey Jesus, to do all that He calls you and me to do today, and trusting Him to do in us and through us, and around us far more than we could ever do by ourselves when we’re walking in obedience to him.

I love the language. “Put out into the deep, let down your nets for a catch”. In other words, obey me with expectancy, with anticipation for what I’m going to do. Oh God, we pray that You would lead us all day long today in each of our lives. That You would help us to obey Your Word.

Luke 5:4 challenges us to exercise a bold faith.

We pray that You’d help us to live in constant, continual obedience to Your Word and with complete. total trust in You. That as we walk in obedience to Your Word, that You will do in us, and through us, and around us, far more than we could ever imagine on our own. God, I pray that You’d give us bold faith, bold trust in You to put out into the deep, to take risks. Lord, we pray that You’d help us be bold with the gospel today, as You said to Simon at the end of this passage, “You’ll be catching men, not fish”.

God, help us to fish for men and women, to lead people to Jesus today with bold trust in You. Help us not to be silent with the gospel. Help us to speak it today in ways that You draw people into Your Kingdom through us today. Yes, God, help us to live with bold faith, boldly sharing the gospel today. Not in our own power, but in Your strength.

And God, we pray for the spread of the gospel among all the nations, putting out in the deep, letting down nets for a catch.

Prayer for the Korai Baloch People

God, we pray for the Korai Baloch people of Pakistan, for 138,000 of them. God, we pray boldly right now that the Korai Baloch would be reached with your gospel. That You would open their eyes, that You would bless all those who are working for the spread of the gospel. I think about friends of mine working for the spread of the gospel among the Baloch.

Please God, give them power. Help them in every way. Help any Balochi believers to be bold with the gospel today, amidst all kinds of challenges to living out and spreading the gospel that they’re facing on a day-by-day basis. God, help them to put out into the deep and trust You. And God, we pray that the Korai Baloch people would be reached with the good news of your grace, and your love, and your mercy. That they would be brought in to Your Kingdom through bold obedience in Your disciples. God, may that be the story of our lives, that at Your Word we will do whatever You call us to do, and we would trust You to do in us, and around us, and through us immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine. May it be so. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.