Have you ever had that feeling on the inside that you were supposed to do something, and you really believed it was God leading you, but your first thought was, “This makes no sense”?
That happened to Peter in Luke 5. Before he was known as Peter, he was Simon, and he had been out fishing all night. He was tired, he was probably frustrated, and after all that work, he had caught nothing.
Then Jesus told him to go back out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.
From a human point of view, that probably sounded ridiculous. Simon had already tried. He had already worked hard. He had already come up empty. And now Jesus was asking him to do the very thing that had not worked all night.
But Simon obeyed.
Luke 5:5 says, “Simon answered, ‘Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.’”
That phrase is what stands out to me: “Because you say so.”
That kind of obedience can be hard, because not everything Jesus asks of us will make sense in the moment. Sometimes He asks us to forgive when we would rather hold onto the hurt. Sometimes He asks us to step out when we would rather stay comfortable. Sometimes He asks us to try again in the very place where we feel like we have already failed.
But Simon’s obedience changed his life. What looked like a confusing instruction became the moment Jesus used to show Simon who He really was and call him into something bigger.
I think that is something I need to remember in my own life. I may not always understand what God is asking or why He is asking it, but I can trust the One who is asking.