Foundations for Our Future (11)

by:Jon Shuler

Learning to Fish

Today we will read and meditate on Mt 4:18-22. One of the most memorable of our Lord’s sayings. But do not let it pass by today without ensuring you have clarity of its meaning for you. It applies to you.

The first disciples were fishermen. They knew hard labor, and they knew their dependance on God for a catch. Now Jesus tells them they are to learn a new skill. They will catch men. He is going teach them what every disciple of the Lord must learn. If they are faithful others will follow the Lord because of them.

How does this begin? By following Jesus. Watching what he does, hearing what he says, learning what he commands, resolving to obey, and learning to follow. That is what makes a disciple. We prove to be disciples of Jesus when we catch men.

But notice well there is to come a day, for all of us, when we are imitating the Master. Each of us is to become part of God’s plan that others would follow Jesus. We do not read about that alone, but we are to imitate it. The Lord wants us all to become  fishermen of people. It is not for a few, it is for all who follow him.

Let us not go on with this day without praying to learn what Jesus wants to teach us.