by: Rick Walter
Matthew 13:47-48, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.”
Jesus is teaching the disciples and He once again uses the illustration of fishing. In this illustration we can picture a fishing boat out on the sea and with its nets in the water. At the close of the fishing day, the fishermen draw their nets into the boat and head to shore. Once they get to shore, they begin the process of sorting the fish that they caught. Some were good and some were bad. They kept the good fish and cast the bad fish away.
Many times we go “fishing” for the Lord and we want to decide which fish should get in the net and which ones shouldn’t. We try to decide whether someone will listen to the Gospel or not. We try to decide whether someone will get saved or not. We try to decide if someone was sincere or not. That is not our job. Our job is to go fishing.
I love fishing for trout. Sometimes when I fish for trout I catch one that isn’t the legal size and I have to throw it back. Sometimes while I am trying to catch trout, I catch a bass. I am not after bass so I throw it back. Sometimes I catch a perch but I am not after perch, so I throw it back.
The fun of fishing is the fishing. I don’t care that I caught a bass. I just care that I caught a fish. I don’t want to keep the perch, but at least I caught a fish. If I could, I would make sure that all that ever bit my hook were trout, but that would cut down on the number of fish I catch and then fishing wouldn’t be as fun as it could be.
Sure, we would like to catch “real” fish. We would like to get the ones that we can keep. We would like to catch the ones that we could use for the future. If those were the only fish we caught, we wouldn’t catch very many. Our job is to simply go out and enjoy fishing.
You may catch some that end up getting thrown back, but at least you had the experience of catching one. You may catch some that aren’t the right size, but at least you got to reel one in. Our job is to simply go fishing and enjoy it and let God do the sorting. I’m not saying that those who profess Christ out soul winning are not saved, all I’m saying is that you just need to enjoy fishing for the souls of men and not get wrapped up in whether they really meant it.
I get excited every time I get a nibble on the hook. I do not care what it is that is nibbling on the bait, I just want to catch it. I know that it is probably a bluegill that I will throw back, but you won’t hear me complaining because I caught the wrong fish.
Let’s go out and have a good day fishing and hopefully at the end of the day we will have some to bring home with us. Just enjoy the fishing. It really is fun.
Rick Walter
Pastor
Victory Baptist Church
Winthrop, ME