“Jesus called out to them, ‘Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!’” (Matthew 4:19)
Some transformations happen slowly, over time, almost unnoticed. Others happen in a moment, with a single sentence that changes everything.
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said to Peter.
Just like that, the nets were down. The old was over. A new name, a new life, a new path had begun.
You know…. Peter wasn’t expecting a calling that morning. He was just trying to survive the day. In fact, it was after a long, fruitless night of fishing that a strange Rabbi stepped into his boat and interrupted the ordinary.
I have to give it to Peter, because if I were him, I don’t know if I would not have been too tired or irritable to care much about anybody. I imagine I would have just wanted to hit the bed and sleep off the weariness in my soul.
Let us also not forget that Jesus didn’t have anything “beautiful or majestic” about His appearance, nothing to attract us to Him (Isaiah 53:2). But as my husband often says, anagkazo will have you doing things you cannot explain!
As I read that story, I am immersed in the exhaustion of doing all you know how to do and coming up empty. The reluctant obedience when God tells you to try again: “Launch out into the deep.” And then, the abundance. The wonder. The realisation that this is not just another man.
Peter fell to his knees and said, “Oh, Lord, please leave me, I’m such a sinful man.” (Luke 5:8)
Yet, Jesus didn’t go away. He came closer. And He said, “Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for people!”(Luke 5:10)
That is how transformation begins: not when we clean ourselves up or become perfect for Him, but when we are honest about who we are and still receive His invitation. When we realise that He does not call those who are qualified, but qualifies those He calls.
The Man Hiding in the Winepress
Now, let me take you back to the days of the Old Testament, to the threshing floor of a man named Gideon. He wasn’t by a boat. He was hiding, in a winepress, threshing wheat in fear.
Survival had turned him into a coward. He wore insecurity like a garment.
Yet locked up in that scared man was a warrior, a man of valour, a valiant leader, a mighty arrow waiting to be fired.
God interrupted his hiding place too, saying: ““The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor! (Judges 6:12)
I imagine Gideon looked around like, “Who, me? You have to be kidding.”
He did not look or feel like a warrior. He felt like the weakest member of the weakest tribe. But God was not speaking to Gideon’s feelings. He was speaking to his destiny, to the man inside of Gideon. The real Gideon.
This is the part that gets me all the time and I hope it settles on you:
God called him mighty while he was still hiding.
God called Peter a fisher of men while he still smelled like fish.
God Sees What We Cannot
You might be standing in the middle of delayed dreams, unhealed disappointments, or, if you’re a mum, dishes, diapers, delayed milestones, tantrums, and a mountain of laundry waiting on you.
You might feel like your work isn’t spiritual enough or like you’ve missed your moment.
But God doesn’t start His calling with your résumé. He calls you according to the purpose for which He created you. That purpose is good and perfect.
You can be a fisher of men while washing plates, teaching your children, sitting at your desk job, or praying silently for someone in traffic or on a bus.
The question is not where you are.
The question is: Are you following? Have you said a sincere ‘yes, Lord’?
Though I am no longer Catholic, one prayer from that time has never left me. It remains one of my favourite prayers even now:
“Jesus, I love You. Yours I am. Yours I want to be. Do with me whatever You will.”
Both Peter and Gideon had something in common. They didn’t feel qualified.
Gideon asked for signs again and again.
Peter would later deny Jesus in His most vulnerable hour.
But God still used them.
He called them.
He walked with them.
He restored them.
That’s what Jesus Christ does. He finds us ordinary and breathes extraordinary purpose into our lives.
What Are You Doing With What You’ve Heard?
Peter left everything and followed. And as he followed, he was changed. He didn’t become a fisher of men right away, but that moment marked the beginning.
Gideon did not become a national deliverer overnight, but once he obeyed that first instruction, to tear down his father’s altar, everything began to shift.
Today, I ask you:
What instructions has God laid on your heart that you have brushed aside because they felt too small or too scary?
Are you waiting for the courage to arrive before you obey?
Remember: obedience is what produces courage.
