Wednesday 18 January 2012

Read Matthew 4:18-20

 

Always be ready to give a defence to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear. –1 Peter 3:15

 

Fishermen sometimes bestow this blessing on one another: “May you keep a tight line.” by which we mean, “May you always have a trout on your line.”  As I’ve got older, however, I must confess that a tight line means less to me now than it once did.  I get as much enjoyment from fishing as I do from catching.

 

When I’m fishing, I have more time to walk alongside the stream and enjoy the solitude and silence, and to look at places where fish might be lurking.  When I try too hard to catch, I lose too many fish and the enjoyment of the day.

 

Jesus calls us to be fishers of men, not catchers (Matthew 4:19).  My job is to go where the fish are, walk among them, study their habitat, and learn their ways.  And then to toss out a line and see if one rises to the surface.  There’s more enjoyment in that easy effort, and I have better results.

 

So I want to fish for people, looking for opportunities to speak a word about Jesus, casting here and there, and leaving the results to God.  It’s more calming for me and for the fish—the folks who might get spooked by my clumsiness.

 

Thus I now bless my fellow fishers with: “May you keep your line in the water.”  Or, as another fisherman once put it, “Always be ready” (1Peter 3:15). –David Roper

White are the fields for the harvest,

Workers are all to few;

Souls are awaiting the message-

Christ will depend on you. –Anon

 

When you fish for souls, cast your nets in faith and draw them in with love.

 

Prayer:

 

¨ Pray for Lyle Shelton and for the ministry God has given Him in Canberra.  Ask God to give him continually His presence and strength.