Don't Waste the Waiting Pt. 7

There is one final story in Peter’s life that I want to dig deeper into. In this story, Peter

thinks he knows how it’s going to end, but God ends up surprising him in the best way.

“Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was

Jesus. He called out to them, ‘Friends, haven’t you any fish?’ ‘No,’ they answered. 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

loves said 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 the

other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from the

shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with

fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, ‘Bring some of the fish you have just caught.’

So, Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large

fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have

breakfast.’ None of the disciples dared ask him, ‘Who are you?’ They knew it was the Lord.”

-John 21:4

    Before this scripture, Peter had left Jesus before He was crucified, he had betrayed Him.

Once Peter left Jesus, he went back to the very thing that Jesus called him from. He went

back to fishing, not that this is a bad thing, but this shows how Peter doubted in himself. Jesus

called him from being a fisherman to a fisher of men. Although he did make a mistake, he fell into the lie that he had messed up too much, that his doubt was the end of his story. 

    Something that I noticed in this passage of scripture was that Peter was referred to as

Simon Peter. Simon being the name that he had before Jesus gave him a new one. I think

that this is so important to notice because it shows how much Peter was doubting. Even the

small detail of a name change shows that he was starting to go back to the life he was living

and the doubt he was believing before Jesus. A beautiful picture of grace is shown, Jesus

comes to find him, even when Peter thought he was too far gone. Once Jesus found him, he

called Peter to shore and made breakfast for them. I love how this shows how caring God is,

even when we mess up time and time again. 

There’s one important difference that is between this story and the very first story we read with Peter. When he pulled the nets back up, they did not break. Before Jesus had died and before He had risen from the grave, the nets holding the fish broke, but now they did not. I think that this shows the grace of God so well. Before Jesus, the things that were covering our vision, causing us to lose our faith would have broken us. But because of the Gospel, because we have Jesus, the things of this world can't break us. How encouraging is that?!

This passage of scripture also gives us a hope to hold onto. Once they saw Jesus, they all knew who He was. No one doubted who He was. Going through different periods of waiting in our lives can be so hard, but we can hold onto the promise that once we get to the other side, it is going to be so clear that it was God working the whole time!

As you go through the waiting times in your life, hold onto the promise that God will be with you through it all! He doesn’t leave you when things get hard, He doesn’t forget about you, He is walking through the waiting with you every step of the way!