Psalm 25:15 My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the net.
When Peter, James and John were fishing all night and had caught nothing, Jesus led them back out. Their nets were so filled with fish they dropped everything to follow Him. Jesus told them from then on they would be catching people. But do people want to be caught?
Being caught in a net feels more like being trapped. It conjures up images of struggling but getting nowhere, being helpless and scared. Feelings of being bound, contorted in a weird position, dangling out of your comfort zone, yanked unexpectedly from normalcy. A fish out of water.
Yet this is when many people turn to Christ for the first times in their lives, isn’t it? Some people grow up in a house of faith and ease into a life with Christ as the center of their hearts. But for many, they are desperately tired of the struggle to get free. They are trapped in circumstances and the net keeps closing in tighter with each attempt to get loose. Jesus said the Truth would set us free, and so it does. Lying, tired and helpless, the trapped soul turns to see warm, loving, nail-scarred hands gently begin to untwist what is binding so tightly.
When we call on Jesus, He responds. Soon, we look up and with one barely freed hand reach out in newly found hope for the One who is larger than us, wiser and in control – because He reaches down to us. Fear and anxiety releases with the weaves of the net. Instead of being helplessly twisted and caught in a trap, we are now caught up in His arms of grace, plucked from the net of despair. Hallelujah.
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36
