WHAT TO DO WHEN WHAT YOU ARE DOING ISN’T WORKING

Do you ever feel like the disciples felt when the “fished all night long and caught nothing”? ALL NIGHT LONG=NOTHING!!!!

Was there a problem with their work ethic? No. They weren’t sitting. They were fishing. Was there a problem with their goal setting? No. Was there a problem with their technique? No. Was there a problem with their proactivity? No. Was there a leadership problem? No. Peter said, “I’m going fishing” and the others said, “We’ll come with you.”

They were going to work! They were willing to work all night long until they got the results they needed! They were focused on the goal! They took others with them!

What was the problem? I believe the problem was that they were doing it without Jesus. Everyone spends their time looking for Waldo when they should be looking for Jesus. Where was Jesus? He was on the shore.

John 15:5 says, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” To work without Jesus would be like vacuuming the floor without the vacuum plugged in. You are doing the right thing and not getting any results. You are working far harder than you would work if you were plugged in, and you are still not getting any results.

Many times, what you need to check is not the technique, it is the power source.

Who are you plugged into? John Maxwell or Jesus? You don’t need to work harder. You don’t need to do more. You are missing an ingredient.

When they listened to Jesus and cast their nets out onto the right side of the boat, there were more fish than their nets could hold. It isn’t that Jesus knew where the fish were and they didn’t. I’m sure they had already fished on the right side of the boat and the left side of the boat and the front side of the boat, and the back side of the boat. It is that the fish didn’t appear until they stopped fishing in their own strength and started fishing in His strength.

If you aren’t getting results, don’t double your efforts. Just STOP, LOOK, AND LISTEN. Stop what you are doing. You are just burning yourself out. Look for Jesus. Until you find Him, your efforts are futile.

It doesn’t mean your techniques are wrong. It just means that God will not allow you to get results apart from Jesus. With Jesus, you can do the exact same thing and get results that you were doing previously without results. Listen to what he has to say.

Jesus may tell you to do the same thing you have been doing all along. The disciples were fishing. The only thing that changed was that now they were fishing in His strength instead of their own.

Or, Jesus might tell you to do something that is completely different from what you have been doing. He told Philip to leave the great crusade where he was preaching and getting magnificent results, and go out into the desert to talk to a single man. So, whether you are like the fishermen who were getting no results, or like Philip who was getting great results, you need to listen to the Lord.

Don’t turn up the effort. Stop the effort and tune into the Master. All your increased activity is doing is creating so much noise that you can’t hear what He is telling you to do. The answer is not always found in doing more. In this case, less is more.

“It is vain to rise up early and go to bed late, to eat the bread of painful labor for He gives to His beloved even in His sleep” (Psalm 127:2).