Mark 1:17, 18
And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And they immediately left the nets and followed Him.
One can hardly be the same person he was prior to accepting the Lord’s call on his life. Saul became Paul, blind men gained their sight, and Simon and Andrew left their nets to follow the Savior. The Lord’s free gift of salvation is much greater than a simple gesture of love; it’s an invitation to become joined in a personal relationship with the Creator of life itself. It’s the Lord’s promise to be with you every day of your life, and your promise to obediently follow wherever He leads. While the process of this change will take a lifetime, it must begin to yield its fruit immediately.
Simon and Andrew immediately dropped everything they knew in anticipation of following the Lord. Fishing was neither a relaxation for them, nor a hobby. The two Galilean men who dropped their nets in the sand that afternoon left their only means of income with the dying fish. Following Christ, however, would lead them to a new hope and a fresh outlook on life. No longer would they merely be fisherman, but rather, they would be called fishers of men.
You may not have been tending physical nets when the Lord called you to salvation, but I imagine there were some difficult things you had to put down. How successful have you been in those goals? The command to leave your “nets” behind is not an option, but a must, if you truly desire to follow Christ. You must leave everything where you are and look forward to the purpose God has now called you towards. The Lord knows where He is going and He asks that you faithfully follow Him where He leads. Unfortunately, it’s the first steps that are always the most difficult.