So here is the set up. Jesus gets finished feeding 5,000 men
plus women and children. It is late, and he sends the disciples ahead of him in
a boat while he dismisses the crowd.
Later that night, Jesus is walking on the water toward the
disciples in the boat, and they think he is a ghost. Calling out, he tells them
not to be afraid its just him.
So, Peter calls out, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come
to you on the water.”
And Jesus said, “Come.”
“So, Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and
came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink,
he cried out, ‘Lord, save me.’ Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took
hold of him saying, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ And when they
got into the boat the wind ceased.”
Now there are a couple of things that stood out to me in
this passage.
- Peter asked for Jesus to command him or call him. So, he had enough faith to ask for the impossible, believing that Jesus could do it.
- Peter had enough faith to swing his legs over the side of the boat. He did not hesitate. He swung those big feet of his over the edge of the boat and stood.
3. Peter
walked all the way to Jesus on the water, making him the only other person
besides Jesus to ever do this feat.
4. Peter
was in the middle of being obedient when the doubt hit him.
Have you ever been in the middle of doing what you know God
has called you to do and doubt crept in?
I know I have.
Slap dab in the middle of doing exactly what God told me to
do, and boom, doubt hits. I start looking around at other people, or the
situation, or like Peter, the turmoil of the moment.
And I, like Peter, go glub, glub, glub, as I sink calling
out to the Lord, “help save me! I’m drowning.”
But as Jesus has promised, he never leaves us nor forsakes
us. He reaches out his hand to me and pulls me up. He walks me across the
water, just like Peter, back to the safety of the boat or in our case, the familiar.
Now, here is the other cool thing that popped out at me when
I read this. The very wind that caused Peter to doubt, that set his mind to
spinning, Jesus stopped.
“And when they got into the boat the wind ceased.”
We must remember that the Lord of the water is the Lord of
the wind too.
So, when you step out to do the unfamiliar or even the
impossible, remember if God has called you “Come,” you can trust he has you all
the way.
Lord,
Help us to trust and believe.
In Jesus’s mighty name,
Amen.
Finding God’s grace,