Not one of us, human, ever expects to fail in a venture he/she believes he or she is well prepared and equipped for. It, therefore, comes as  a shock to us, if in such a circumstance, we experience failure. Peter’s historical fishing experience, as recorded in Luke’s gospel chapter five, presents a case in point.
One can only imagine Peter’s consternation as he washed his nets,following a fishing debacle. He must have been subjected to mental torture as he thought about the experience he and his colleagues had had all through the previous night, fishing. It is important to understand what must have been the reason for Peter’s bewilderment at their failure. This will help explain his disappointment.
For one thing, Peter and his colleagues were skilled fishermen, with a wealth of experience behind them. This apparently implies that they knew the tricks of the trade: the what, when, where and how. For another, they had the necessary fishing implements required for success. In addition, the night time at which they had gone fishing, was the most favourable for the  enterprise. Finally, they had worked hard all through the night. They were not lazy about it. In spite of all this, they caught nothing. Very disappointing indeed.
It’s important at this point to understand that Peter’s situation, as have been  analyzed above, represents the  experience of a significant percentage of
humanity whose best efforts at certain fields of endeavour have proven futile.
Jesus comes on the scene at this point, and requests the use of Peter’s boat to preach to the crowd around Him. Considered on face value, He did not seem to have been sensitive to Peter’s plight. This is the  point  at which  a superficial evaluation of Jesus’s request for Peter’s boat, in spite of his failure at catching fish throughout the night, could  easily  have led to a misjudgement of his character. Well thank God for Peter who not only  let Jesus use his boat for preaching, but also waited and listened to His message. Jesus did not appear to have been in a hurry, for the bible says He sat down and taught the multitude from the boat(Lk 5vs3). We don’t how long Jesus taught. However, Peter was there attentive to His words. When Jesus had finished speaking, He addressed Peter personally, instructing him to :”launch into the deep and let down your nets for a catch”(Lk 5vs4). Peter’s response to this instruction reflects the depth of disappointment he felt at the outcome of his fishing venture with his colleagues the night before, and the toll it had taken on his confidence. Nevertheless, he had been given an option to Obey or not to Obey. Jesus was not going to argue with him. It’s a good thing Peter finally realised it was Jesus, who is the way the truth and the life that had spoken, and therefore obeyed. The  result was immediate, astonishing and life transforming for, especially, Peter(Lk 5vs6, 7). Once they obeyed, they caught such a large number of fish that their net began to break, as a result of which, they had to enlist the help of their partners in another boat to accommodate the catch. Both boats were so filled with fishes that they began to sink. Peter and his colleagues had a net-breaking,boat-sinking miracle. The life-transforming nature of this miracle for Peter was such that it brought him face to face with his sinfulness on the one hand and God’s generous mercy and grace on the other hand. He realised that in spite of his sinfulness, God was merciful and gracious to him. This resulted in his forsaking all and following Jesus.
There are a number of lessons for personal application that  God would want us to learn from the Biblical account above. First among them is that our training, skills, wealth of experience, equipment, diligence  and connections are only the necessary but not the sufficient conditions for success. God Himself is our only sufficient condition for success(Rom 9vs16). We were never destined by God to enjoy kingdom success without Him.  
This was the mistake Israel made in Prophet Jeremiah’s day, for which they were sternly rebuked by God(Jer 2vs13). God is the only fountain of living water and only He  can make us prosper in the real sense of the word.
  The second lesson we should learn from the Biblical account above is that God prioritises His word over everything else(Ps 138vs2). This was the reason why Jesus taught God’s word first before showing concern for Peter’s predicament. God’s word, in His view, must take precedence over all else, because He and His word are one and His word is the basis for the existence of everything(John 1vs1-3). Without God’s word His kingdom has no means of expression on earth. In fact God’s word embodies His kingdom. Therefore, God not only expects but requires us to place no less value on His word.
Thirdly, we learn from the account above the importance of not letting failure determine our attitude to God and His work. Peter could have allowed his disappointing experience of the previous night dictate his response to Jesus, when He had entered his boat and asked him to put out a little from land. However, Peter chose not to let his feelings rule over him. He quietly did what Jesus had asked of him, thereby taking sides with God and triumphing over his flesh. Finally, God dramatically demonstrated both the infallibility of His integrity and His omnipotence, by ensuring that Peter and his colleagues caught a phenomenal amount of fishes, when they did as Jesus had instructed. Have you failed at an endeavour you expended so much time and resources on? Take heart, you have a  historical companion in Peter,whose choice of action in this context, should serve as the standard Biblical model to follow.