WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME A FISHERMAN

How many of you have gone fishing before? I am willing to bet that the vast majority of you have gone fishing at one point in your life. Fishing sounds wonderful, but it can be a long, lonely, hot adventure, and you can go home empty-handed.

When I was growing up, we went to the lake a lot. Every weekend we were camping up some cove, and it was isolated and wonderful. I loved camping back then; it was a lot of fun. After you grow up, you find that camping isn’t near as much fun since you have to do all of the work instead of your parents.

I remember one time I decided that I was going to take the boat out and go fishing. You have to go early in the morning before the sun comes out bright and before all of the boats start running up and down the lake. It sounded like fun, but fun was not on the agenda. Instead, there was a whole lot of casting the line, winding up the line…casting the line, winding up the line. I am sure you get the picture.

Evidently, fishing and catching are two completely different things. You can fish all day long, but you might not catch anything at all. Where is the fun in that???

Matthew 4:19

¹⁹ Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

In Matthew, Jesus tells Peter and Andrew to follow him, and he would make them fishers of men. It wasn’t a far stretch for Peter and Andrew since they were already fishermen. They must have known that fishing for men would be just as hard as fishing for fish.

When you think about fishing for fish, you know that you have to have patience. The odds are that you won’t catch a big fish on your first cast; you have to cast repeatedly until the fish gets curious enough to nibble as the bait. Even when you feel the fish nibble on the bait, you still have to have patience. If you react too strongly, you scare the fish away, and you’ve lost your chance of catching him.

If you are patient and pay close attention to the signs, you will be able to reel in a fish to the boat. However, a fish can’t live on the boat; it has to be in the water to survive. So, many fishermen will catch and release their fish.

Fishing for men means that you tell the gospel of Christ to men in the hopes that they will become believers. This is not easy, and most people will be skeptical and resistant to the good news. You have to be patient and keep telling of the gospel until someone gets curious. Then, you have to not react too strongly, or you will scare them away.

And, even if you manage to get someone to become a believer, you have to throw them back into the world. That is when it is up to them to decide if they will go back to their old ways or become a fisherman.

When you are a fisherman, you soon realize that there are many fish in the pond, river, lake, sea, or ocean. You could catch fish every day of your life and never run out of the opportunity of catching fish. You might exhaust one area, but there are plenty of fish if you expand your territory.

Like Peter and Andrew, we need to throw down our nets and follow Jesus. It is time that we went fishing; there is a lot of hungry fish out there.

To God Goes The Glory!

Have  Blessed Day!