Just One More Time ...

Just one more time …

This phrase can have many different meanings to people, as it did for me before tonight. In prayer the words “just one more time” continuously echoed throughout my mind, accompanied by scriptures from the book of Luke.

This New Testament scripture tells the story of Jesus standing by the water’s edge surrounded by a crowd of people who wished to hear him speak. Being pressed upon by the crowd, Jesus entered a nearby ship and asked the owner, a man named Simon, to cast out from the shore a bit so he could speak to the crowd from the boat. Simon did as he was asked, allowing Jesus to teach the people without being over-crowded.

When Jesus finished speaking to the people on the shore, he turned to Simon and gave him another direction. This time, instead of moving only a little ways from the water’s edge, he told Simon to take his boat into the deep water and let down his nets to catch fish.

Though this direction might not seem too out of the ordinary, considering Simon was a fisherman by trade and that they were on a boat, these were not ordinary circumstances for Simon. He and his fellow fishermen had spent the entire night in the depths of the sea fishing – having caught nothing. In fact, they were busy cleaning their nets and packing away their supplies when Jesus entered the boat and began to speak to the people. I can only imagine how worn out and discouraged these men must have been, having nothing to show for their efforts. What was to make them believe that now they would catch fish?

Simon replied to Jesus in Luke 5:5. “Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing; nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.”

As I pondered this story I began to think about some of the situations currently occurring in my life. I realized I felt a lot like how I imagined the fishermen to have felt. I, by no means, had been on a fishing trip; however, I had tirelessly been trying to find ways to get through some very weary trials of my life. And, like the fishermen, I had made it through the night (many in fact) with my efforts having been to no avail.

I found myself in the ‘morning after’ cleaning of the proverbial nets stage. I think most everyone can relate to this place in life – the place where you have done everything you know to do to fix the problem, you have used up all of your ‘lifelines,’ and your reserve tank is on empty. Yep, that’s the place. The place in the midst of life’s trials and hardships where you are searching desperately to think of any last shred of hope you may have to make it. Sound familiar?

It is a place I believe most of us know all-too-well. It is the place Jesus found me tonight, and spoke to me, just as he had spoken to Simon. “Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.” In other words, “try again, just one more time.”

I don’t believe Jesus gave the instruction for Simon and the other fishermen to launch out into the deep simply to depend on their own efforts as they had the night before. I also do not believe he was telling me to try again leaning on my own abilities. Both I and the fishermen had toiled all the night long, many nights maybe, relying on ourselves or those around us to get the results we desired. The morning had arrived with no solution and we were cleaning up, packing up, and getting ready to give up when direction came to launch out into the deep … to try again, just one more time.

This is the perfect place for God to work in our lives; however, just like Simon and the fishermen, we have a choice to make after the direction comes. Do we cater to our weary bodies, exhausted minds, and seemingly hopeless situation and head home or do we unpack our gear, get back on the boat, set out to the deep waters, and throw our nets back into the same sea we had just left behind?

Reading a bit further in the book of Luke may make this decision an easier one for us.

“And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink.” Luke 5:6-7

By acting in obedience these fishermen did in minutes what they had not managed to do in hours – they caught fish – in fact, they caught so many fish two ships were not able to contain their catch.

Now I pose two questions.

First, what would have happened if Simon and his fellow fishermen, tired and defeated, had refused to cast their nets just one more time?

Second, what could happen if we, being tired and defeated, decide to cast our nets just one more time?

“Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.” Luke 5:5

I have a feeling, biblically-based of course, that the weight of the blessing might just break right through our nets, leaving us as the fishermen were left, with more than enough!

Proverbs 3:5

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”

Simon and his fellow fishermen were not simply amateurs who decided to take a fishing trip. Catching fish was their profession, one of which I’m sure they were good at. As experienced fishermen they had decided to clean their nets and pack their supplies because they knew there were no fish to be caught. Had they decided to lean on their own understanding of their profession and not follow the instruction given by Jesus, they would never have caught enough fish to overfill their two boats.

Zechariah 4:6

“Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.”

It is important to understand that the fishermen did not catch two boat loads of fish because of their expertise. God was the provider of the fish for Simon and the fishermen, just as He is the provider of our blessings.

Galatians 6:9

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Casting our nets into the deep … trying again just one more time … may become trying again, and again, and again, and so on; however, the word encourages us not to give up.

Ephesians 3:20-21

“Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”