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A call to a new purpose

This morning as I was reading the Gospel of Luke I was captivated by the first eleven verses of chapter 5. In these first eleven verses I read about how Jesus calls Simon Peter to follow Him. While Simon Peter and his companions are cleaning their nets after a hard night’s work, Jesus appears at the lakeside and begins to teach a crowd of people who have gathered around Him.
Peter is evidently enthralled by the words of Jesus. Suddenly Jesus turns to him and challenges him to go out once more and let down his nets. To an experienced fisherman, casting out his nets after daybreak would have seemed a foolish thing to do, but Peter, recognising that this man was speaking with the divine authority, obeys.
What happens next is a miracle: when the fishermen draw in the nets, they are so full of fish that they begin to tear, and as the men empty them into the boat, the boat nearly sinks. Clearly the one standing in front of him is not just another itinerant preacher, of whom there were many at the time; only God Himself could have performed this miracle!
Standing in the presence of God, Peter can only respond by saying, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” In the light of God’s presence, we see ourselves not as we would like to be, but as we really are. Nothing can be hidden from Him. He reveals every deed and every thought. Like Peter, we cannot feel comfortable in His presence with our sin.
Jesus, however, does not leave Peter in this desperate state. God convicts us of sin, not to condemn us, but to set us free. He calls us to follow him and changes our lives into something new. Jesus responds to Peter, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.”
The most important thing I learnt is that if we confess our sins and failures to God, He forgives us and cleanses us, and He gives our lives a new purpose. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17). “He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.” (v.15).

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