Harvest Daily Devotional 12/03/03

Harvest Daily Devotional 
by Pastor Greg Laurie

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December 3, 2003

Empty Net Syndrome

 

“Simon Peter said, ‘I'm going fishing.’ ‘We'll come, too,’ they all said.  So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night.” (John 21:3)

 

It was déjà vu time for the disciples.  They had been fishing all night on the Sea of Galilee and hadn’t caught anything.  The Lord had risen.  He already had appeared to some of the disciples.  There were no clear marching orders, so they thought they would go back to what they knew how to do: fish.

 

Now it is early in the morning, probably still dark.  They see a figure standing on the shore.  He calls out, “Friends, have you caught any fish?”

 

Throughout the Bible, God often asked probing questions when He wanted a confession.  In the same way, Jesus was asking His disciples, “Did you catch anything?  Have you been successful?  Have things gone the way you had hoped they would go?  Are you satisfied?”

 

Why did Jesus want them to admit their failure?  So He could bring them to the place where they needed to be.

 

When they cast the net on the right side of the boat as Jesus told them to, their net became so heavy with fish that they couldn’t pull it in.  The Lord was teaching the disciples an important lesson: Failure often can be the doorway to real success.

 

We need to come to that point in our lives as well.  We need to come and say, “Lord, I am not satisfied with the way my life is going.   I am tired of doing it my way.  I want to do it your way.”  If you will come to God like that, He will extend His forgiveness to you.  Then He will take your life and transform it in ways you couldn’t imagine.

 

Copyright © 2003 by Harvest Ministries.  All rights reserved.  Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996.  Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189.  All rights reserved.