When What You Are Doing Doesn’t Work For You, Be Open to Change: Sunday Devotional

Luke 5:4-6 When he [Jesus] had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” ⁵ 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.” ⁶ When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.” 

There is one phrase I do not like to hear people say, especially when they are experiencing a crisis, and I am trying to get them to change what they have been doing. When they say, “But that is how it’s always been done,” I wince, knowing that getting them to change is going to be a job. This is especially true in the Christian Church.

Jesus had borrowed two boats to speak to the crowds, one of which belonged to a young fisherman named Simon. Once he finished speaking, he rewarded the fishermen by commanding them to cast their nets again, even though they had fished all night to no avail. Simon was a professional fisherman, so he felt compelled to inform Jesus that they had tried all night, implying that a return to deep water wouldn’t change their luck.

However, Simon didn’t say, “It’s always been the case, Sir, that if you don’t catch any fish at night, don’t try again in the morning.” He was skeptical, but he obeyed because Jesus spoke with authority. These were professional fishermen who had set practices, but in accepting that the man from Galilee was special and being open to His commands, their lives were changed. Peter fell on his knees before Him, and Jesus told Simon, John, and James that, from that day forward, they would fish for people for the Kingdom of God.

In the Church, we have to be open to changing how we do our activities when we see that the way things have always been done no longer works for reaching the unsaved and the lost. We must be willing to alter how we see the world and how we operate in it if the past ceases to be profitable for other people’s salvation. Times change, and though we may not like some of the changes, we must be willing, even in the Body of Christ, the Christian Church, to change our manner of worshiping or the songs we sing, if we, too, are to continue to be fishers of people. We can’t just depend on the way things have always been done anymore.

Amen.