Today’s Devotion
Topic: Nonetheless At Your Word! Part 2 (Self Assessment 98)
Background: Our everyday activities come with different challenges than we often anticipate. In our bid to surmount these problems, we easily forget the place of God in our lives and do things on our own.
But as patient and loving as our heavenly Father is, He shows up just when we have exhausted our options and we are about to give up. He speak the word and remind us through the working of a miracle that He is God and there is nothing too hard for Him.
There are so many incredible examples in the bible of people who were at their own business without God but choose to forfiet their path once the word of God came to them and were very blessed they did. Today we will continue with our series of these incredible examples from the bible.
Text: John 21: 2-8
2 Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. 5 He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered.
6 He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Then the disciple whom Jesus lovedsaid to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water.
8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. Amen
Question:
i. The incident above happened after Jesus has been crucified. Why do you think Peter abandoned the vision of Christ to go back to fishing?
ii. According to vrs 3, the response of the other disciples to Peter’s decision to go back to fishing was “we will go with you”. What does that teach us about leaders who are not careful to stick the collective vision but sway to things of personal interest?
iii. Is it surprising that they toiled all night without Jesus and caught nothing? What does that teach us about trying to make it on our own?
iv. In your own opinion, what do you think made Jesus’ own disciples not recognize Him initially when He stood ashore? They could not identify His voice also, not even after He had called them “friends”.
v. In vrs 6, what can we say about the character of Jesus’ disciples when they yielded instantly to His command without knowing who He was initially and what they could gain from Him? How can we emulate this?
vi. After they obeyed the instruction from “Whoever stood ashore” asking them to launch into the deep, they caught so much fish that required assistance to drag ashore. The disciple Jesus loved (John), then said to Peter ” It is the Lord”. How was it that John could easily relate the results of their obedience to Jesus?
vii. The disciples abandoned the fish and rash to Jesus the moment they noticed it was Him. In your opinion, why has it been so difficult in our case to place more value on Jesus than the miracles He make come our way?
viii. Do you think their obedience to Jesus’ instruction eventually helped them to know Him better? How can we relate this to our own lives?
vx. What have you learnt from today’s study?
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