The Night of Failure—the Morning of Faith
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Many of the personal incidents in the lives of our Lord and his disciples, light up like transparencies, with vivid spiritual instruction. One of these is in that most suggestive experience of Peter and Andrew and the two sons of Zebedee, when they "toiled all the night" with their nets and drew in nothing. That long night's work—and probably hard work too—meant failure. Peter's sad words, "Master, we have toiled all night and taken nothing," might be written under the history of more than one human undertaking.
Pastors sometimes write this epitaph over their sermons, or over a period of labor—which ends in empty nets. Christian workers—looking at the largeness of outlay and expectations, and the smallness of visible results—have often thrown away their nets in sheer despair!
Say what we may, the fact remains that godly men and women who toil hard in a noble undertaking, do not always win immediate success—none certainly which is visible to their own eyes. God is sovereign! And that signifies that God always will have his own way, and not ours. We may man our prayer services, or our mission enterprises, or any other Christian undertakings, with a boat-load of capable workers, and just as surely as we begin to count our fish before we have caught them—we may come to shore at last with an empty net "Not by might, nor by power—but by my Spirit, says the Lord!"
Even Paul's arm may swing the seed-bag, and Apollos may guide the irrigating water with his foot—but God alone can give the increase. This is the lesson which we have to be taught again and again; for our Heavenly Father always vetoes every claim of human independence.
But let us turn over the leaf and see how the night of failure was followed by the morning of faith. When the sun had lighted up the blue waves of Galilee, and a whole navy of fishing boats boats are lying by the strand, Jesus appears. He delivers a discourse to the multitude on the beach, and then he thinks of his poor, disappointed disciples. He always feels for us, in our disappointments. Knowing what a tedious and fruitless night the four fishermen had spent, and seeing that their nets were washed and mended, he gave the order, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." Peter had a vast deal of human nature in him; so he frankly says, "Master, we have toiled all night and taken nothing." Had he stopped there, he would have deserved a sharp rebuke. He was despondent—but he was not despairing. So out bolts from his eager tongue that noble answer, "Nevertheless, Lord, at your word I will let down the net."
Here is a motto for faith to nail to its masts. Faith is more than willing to try another venture—yes, a score of them—provided that it has the "word" of Jesus for going ahead. Christ offered to go with them himself. Christ gives the word of command, "Launch out into the deep!" Faith has nothing to do but obey orders and bend to the oar. Down goes the net. And lo! a mighty swarm of fish is pouring into the net, so that the meshes are breaking with the strain. As busy as fervent Christians are in the most glorious revival, are Peter and Andrew in hauling in that overloaded net. Ah, faith has brought fullness now.
It always does. Peter makes signal to John and James to bring their two boats alongside and to help harvest the multitude of fish. Both boats are so overloaded that they are in danger of sinking. And Peter is so overwhelmed with the miraculous power of Jesus of Nazareth that he throws himself down at Jesus' knees, and cries out, "O Lord, I am a sinful man!" So grand does Jesus seem to him, and so base does he seem to himself, that he does not feel fit to remain in his Lord's presence. Sweet indeed was Christ's reply to the awe-struck disciple, "Fear not, Peter; henceforth you shall fish for souls; henceforth you shall catch men!"
I have often thought that the experience of that night of failure and that morning of success, must have been a capital lesson in the schooling of those apostles. Just such a lesson we need now. We need to be taught that success does not depend on strong arms or strong nets or well-manned boats. It depends on Christ's presence with us in the boats, andour obeying his divine directions.
Methinks that we hear his heavenly voice of love saying to all of us, brothers and sisters, "Launch out into the deep!" Leave the shallow places. Seek for deep experience—deep study of God's precious truth—and deeper draughts of the Spirit of Christ. Then we cannot utterly fail; for faith overcomes, and all things are possible to him who believes. At the end of every night spent without Christ (however hard we toil) you may write "failure." At the close of every day spent with Christ, and under his oversight, you will joyfully write, "fullness of blessings."
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