When Jesus Christ told His disciples that He would make them “fishers of men”, He made a wise choice of a metaphor. He wasn’t talking about fishing for food for the evening’s meal. He was talking about “fishing” that makes changes in people’s lives.
One of the basics of good fishing is to find out where the fish are—whether in the Gulf, the lake, the ocean, or the pond. With that knowledge of specific location, the fisherman betters the odds of bringing something home for dinner.
When it comes to “fishing for men”, believers may ignore this basic concept. The “comfort zone” for some believers is the local church or even a Bible study group, where no one argues back or makes fun of another person’s belief in Christ.
That’s not what Jesus Christ did when He spent three years in ministry. The super-religious people—the Pharisees and Sadducees—criticized Him for eating dinner with tax collectors or for spending time and attention on a woman caught in adultery. But that didn’t stop Jesus Christ from going where needy people were. In fact, He explained to the super-religious people that He came to earth to minister to the “sick”, not to the ”well” people.
As a side note, those super-religious people who thought they were in the “well” group were actually like white-washed tombs, according to Christ’s descriptive diagnosis.
If your intent is to let Jesus Christ make you a “fisher of men”, then your first step is to ask Him to guide you to where the fish are. This may be your office, your workshop, your club bowling team, the people who live in your neighborhood, or people you meet at the airport.
When you go “fishing”, you share what Jesus Christ has done for you, how He has changed your life and given you peace and forgiveness. Is there a guarantee that each person who hears your story will immediately become a believer? No, but you will have done your part in planting seeds that God will water and harvest at a later date.
If you have no clue where the fish are in your corner of the world, then your first task is to ask God to show you. That’s a prayer He will answer.