.blessings.

Luke 5

The Calling of the First Disciples

¹One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, ²he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. ³He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

⁴When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."

⁵Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."

⁶When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. ⁷So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

⁸When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" ⁹For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, ¹⁰and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners.

Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." ¹¹So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

Whenever you hear people praying or participate in prayer, a common thing to hear or to say is, "Lord, bless so-and-so...bless them with such-and-such-a-thing..." and so on and so forth. We pray specific (or general) blessings on people all. of. the. time.

My question, is...why? Sure, there are certain times when it's necessary to pray for specific things; lately, I've found myself praying for the Lord to bless us with a buyer for our home. But for the general blessings we pray - what's the point?

In Luke 5, Simon Peter, James and John had just made the greatest catch of their lives! They were fishermen, this was their job, and they had just hit it big. Yet, somehow they didn't use what they had been blessed with to further themselves or their business. I didn't read anything about James immediately planning on how they would use this wealth to purchase bigger boats. Simon Peter didn't start crunching numbers for the addition he would put on his house, and John definitely didn't start making mental notes on what designer robes he was going to purchase.

They left it. They had spent a whole night working hard but not catching a single fish. They didn't catch anything until Jesus came around. It was then that they brought in so many fish that their nets started breaking and their boats began to sink down. This was what they had been laboring over and anticipating for the whole night, yet they didn't use it for their own gain!

I am dumbfounded, bamboozled, shocked and astounded. They were abundantly blessed and they left it. What then are the purposes of being blessed? It would appear that the purposes are greater than we think.

...just something to chew on.