The World says that we can do nothing to stop it from doing whatever it wants to do. The truth is seen in two places in the Bible that explain that we have all the strength we need to influence the path the world around us takes by only drawing our strength from Christ. The most obvious verse is from Phillipians 4:13 that says; ‘I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength’
The less obvious place it is shown is in John 20:3-11 which states that Peter, upset and depressed after first denying Jesus, then seeing Him put to death, even though Peter had seen Jesus’ resurrection, he still felt sad and lost because he was unable to forgive himself for denying Jesus. In spite of how Jesus had tried to reinstate Peter in the leadership of the Apostles Jesus had left behind at His death.
Peter was so upset and depressed with himself that he had given up on the things he had been taught by Jesus and decided to go back to the one thing he knew how to do without question. Just like Peter, we also give up on God’s plan and go back to what we know, before giving God the chance to work in our lives. Peter went back to what he knew best and not only went himself, but like we so often do, he took several other Apostles with him. As we take those who are lost or wish to give up on God to go away from God or the things of God.
He and the other Apostles did what they had been trained from youths to do and began to fish again. They struggled to be successful in their own strength and fished all night, because it was the usually best time for catching fish, and ended up catching nothing. As they came in closer to shore, they saw a man on the shore cooking some food over a fire. The man called to them when they had gotten within earshot and asked if they had caught anything to eat. They had to respond NO.
The man then instructed them to do something that went against their training as fishermen, let down the nets again where they were close to shore, and let them down on the right side of the boat that was closer to shore. They knew by their own understanding that this instruction by the stranger should do nothing to help as it went against everything they knew to work as fishermen. Peter had an idea as to who this was and it seemed confirmed by what happened next. The net that was let down by them was filled with fish so much so that they could not by their own strength pull the net back up on the ship. This was basically the same thing that had happened to Peter when Jesus had first called him to be a disciple and follow him. Jesus wanted Peter to do the same thing, let down the nets on the boat’s right side. The same thing happened, the net was filled so much with fish that Peter could not bring them all up. The first time Peter could call to other boats in the area to help him with all the fish. This time though, there were no other boats in the area to help. Rather than wait for the boat to return to shore, Peter confirmed his suspicions with John and immediately Put on some clothes, as he was necked from being out on the boat fishing and working hard so he took off his clothes as it was very warm there even at night. Peter put on his over coat and dove into the water to swim on to shore so he could be with Jesus.
Even though Peter felt depressed and lost he knew that he was very excited to see Jesus again. The other disciples rowed on to the shore dragging the net behind them and Peter filled with the strength of the Lord, then went over to where the boat came ashore and singlehandedly pulled the net with as John said, 153 fishes, on the shore before returning to Jesus. Peter and the other disciples had been blessed beyond anything they had dreamed, again by Jesus. Despite their lack of strength to follow the teaching and direction in their depression and sadness over losing their leader, they were greatly blessed with great riches by God. Peter in himself showed the strength given by God in that he alone was able to drag on shore the net with 153 fish that the other disciples were unable to drag in the boat.
We have a choice we must face in our life, either follow Jesus and the Holy Spirit in our lives, or follow the world and the things of this world that limit the power of Jesus and His Holy Spirit. Which one do you think you will follow? The Creator of all things, or the creation He made? That is the choice we all have to make, because we know who is the lord of this world and who is ultimately in control.
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