Jesus often used fish or fishing-type analogies to help Him make a point in His stories. We see Him using bread and fish when He is feeding 5,000 hungry listeners. Jesus picked many of His disciples from the fishing profession. And one of His most notable quotations is that He will make His personally recruited evangelists ‘fishers of men.’ With that in mind I want to use another fishing analogy as I relate to a man’s heart.
I suppose that most of us have some experience with a heart in one way or another. We have all probably seen someone with a broken heart, and I don’t think we would have to look very long to experience someone with a heart that was hard, and most of us have experienced the joy of a loving heart. There are compassionate hearts, open hearts, wounded hearts, happy hearts, etc. Pastors mend hearts, mentors shape hearts, doctors put stints in hearts, moms tug at hearts and on Valentines Day we pass around hearts. But when you think of a heart in relation to Jesus and what His purpose on Calvary was, it was for hearts; the hearts of men.
In terms of salvation, a heart can be a very difficult thing. When Jesus told His disciples that they would be fishers of men, He meant that those disciples were going to become spiritual heart surgeons. They would preach and teach and change men’s hearts - from sinner to a saint.
Did you ever try to change a heart? It is not an easy thing. A heart can be very slippery like a fish. Just when you think you are about to pull it out of the water, it slips through your fingers and right back into the stream. It is a very hard thing to win a heart. You could take a kid in Sunday school and spend many hours of study and never win his heart for Christ. You could take one child and then another and another and then another and many more on top of that and maybe once in a while you could win a child’s heart to the Lord. It is a very difficult thing to win a heart to Christ. ?You know who is good at winning hearts?.....The world! Yes, they are excellent at winning hearts……Just do something and allow their applause to fill your ears and watch how quickly a heart is won….
Take a man to a gambling table and give him a couple bucks to get him started and watch how easy gambling wins his heart.
Just flatter a person with some good old fashioned sweet talk and see how quickly a good old boy will have you eating out of his hands. If that guy sat down beside you in the park you would get up and move or call the cops but out of his mouth comes some good old fashioned candy-coated compliments and all of a sudden, he‘s not a bad guy at all he’s got you buying a beachfront property in Arizona. I am telling ya, the world knows how to win a heart.
But let’s be serious for a minute. When it comes to Jesus’ kingdom, hearts are a slippery subject - only God can win a heart for His Kingdom. That is why we need to pray.
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