“Blessings”
God has a standard that He expects
His people to live by and, when we do, there are times that we will be blessed as a
result. But there is one important thing
to understand: we can never be good
enough to DESERVE His blessings. There
are, however, times when God will also bless us when we are not at our
best. During these times, He is
selective about who He blesses. The
Bible illustrates how God decided to bless a person who understood that
they did not deserve the blessing that they had received, and the grace that
this person experienced caused them to display a greater level of
humility.
In Luke 5:1-11, Peter is instructed
by Jesus to go out into the deep and drop his net into the water. After fishing all night and catching nothing,
Peter’s heart is not fully into fulfilling this request but he does it
anyway. As a result of his obedience, he catches so many fish that his
nets began to break and he has to seek assistance from James and John. The fish are so numerous that both fishing
boats are on the verge of sinking. After reaching the shore, Peter bows before
Jesus and acknowledges that he is a sinful man and does not deserve to have
Jesus in his presence. Peter had doubted
that he would have any success in catching any fish and to doubt God is
sin.
The blessing that Peter received
caused him to humble himself and become more willing to value the Blesser more than
the blessing. Peter valued Christ so
much that he was willing to leave his occupation and any potential future
benefits in order to fully commit to following Jesus.
Matthew 5:43-45
43 “You have heard that it was said,
‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to
you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may prove
yourselves to be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His
sun to rise on the evil
and the good, and
sends rain on the righteous
and the unrighteous.
