1Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret;
2and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets.
3And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat.
4When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch."
5Simon answered and said, "Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets."
6When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break;
7so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink.
8But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, "Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!"
9For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken;
10and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men."
11When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.
There are several things I learn about Jesus from this incident. First, it was morning and Jesus was teaching at the edge of the Sea of Galilee while a bunch of people pressed around Him to hear what He had to say. Some of those present were fishermen who had returned from a night of fruitless fishing. Second, He convinced Peter to go out into the deep water in spite of his protests that there were no fish. But when Peter obeyed Jesus, the catch overwhelmed him and his net. Third, Peter couldn't bring in the catch alone. He needed others to join him and even then, the boats nearly swamped. Finally, Jesus turned Peter's focus from catching fish to catching men.
As I consider these things and what they could possibly mean to me, I see once again that listening to Jesus is critical and that He has something to say that is always worth hearing. However, by His grace, I have to put myself in a position to hear Him. In general, that means reading my Bible each day asking Him to teach me about Himself. It also means praying and talking to Him about who He is, what is going on in my life and asking what He wants to do through me today. It means spending time hearing and studying the Word with others.
Often, as I listen to Him, He directs me to go out in the deep water even though I can't understand why I should go there and it is somewhat uncomfortable. But that is where His work happens to be and if I want to be in on it, I need to, by His grace, go where He commands. Finally, His best work through me is in concert with other believers who are willing to go back out into the deep water with me where God is working.
We are like Peter and His friends, fishers of men and women. However, it is Jesus who calls You, guides You to the people and stays with You providing wisdom, courage, strength and other believers resulting in the abundant harvest.