God has been
pressing the scripture in Matthew 14 (where He and Peter walked on the water)
for the last few days and actually when I consider it, the last few months. At
first glance it seems like no more than a super cool story about something impossible
being accomplished with little implication for the modern day believer BUT this
scripture is jam packed with encouragement and implications for believers in
the 21st century! Let’s see
what we can pull out of this text!
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat
and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23
After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to
pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was
already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the
wind was against it.
25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on
the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they
were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It
is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to
you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out
of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when
he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save
me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You
of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died
down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying,
“Truly you are the Son of God.”
Ok so first it’s important for us to
understand that absolutely everything that is written in the bible has purpose.
God is a purpose-driven God; therefore, He desires to tell us a story about Him
in everything.
Can you see it? The disciples have
had a hard day and an amazing day all at the same time! They are tired (You’d
have to read the entire chapter to capture this part)! John the Baptist has been
murder in the worst way; they had a massive crowd show up (about 5,000) to be
healed by Jesus and to listen to Him, they had been out there in the heat all
day and they told Jesus “Send these people home so they can eat, it’s getting late”
and Jesus responded “uhhh no, they are hungry but don’t shift responsibility…YOU
FEED THEM”. They look at Jesus like he is crazy, “Master, we can’t possibly feed
ALL of these people, we only have 2 little sardines and 5 loaves of bread!!” Then
Jesus, full of swag responded “Perfect, bring me what you have and I’ll
make the increase”. The disciples witness 5,000 people fed with more than enough
food remaining afterwards (and they were able to take some ownership because
Jesus used their hands as vessels to give the increase).
Ok that brings us to this point à the disciples on a boat after a long, difficult but
exciting day of miracles. The waves are crashing around the boat and all of a
sudden they see Jesus walking on the water (for some reason, we always get
nervous when we see Jesus operating outside of our realm of understanding).
Jesus told them “Take Courage! It is I! Don’t be afraid!” I imagine Jesus thinking
“here we go again; they are acting like they’ve never seen me do impossible
things before. Just today I allowed them to see 5,000 people be fed with just a
little food yet they are still amazed. Ok, I will take this opportunity to
confirm who I am to them once more.”
Peter cracks me up so much!! Do ya’ll
see this dude’s response? “Lord forreal forreal, if that is really you then I
bet you can’t make me walk on water!!” Jesus decides to oblige him here and
tells Peter to come. I see myself in Peter and I can relate to what He was
feeling. He steps out of the boat by faith and he’s doing it; He’s actually
walking on the water! Then Peter takes
His eyes off of Jesus and focuses on his circumstances. He starts to look at
the waves and forgets to focus on Christ and that is the place where he begins
to sink. But the good thing is that he has enough sense to call on
Jesus for help. This next part is beautiful…
The scripture says, “Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him”. Wow, what a
loving father! If it were me, I may have let him sink a little bit more to teach
him a lesson before I saved him (horrible, I know). But Jesus, like the
gracious warrior and loving father that he is, IMMEDIATELY reached out His
strong hand to save Peter. He also took an opportunity to give Peter a pep talk
about trusting Him. When the other disciples saw what had happened they worshiped
Jesus. Funny how our trials propel
us to worship God right!
Worry ends where faith
begins. It is critical that we take the limits off of God. God desires for us
to walk on the proverbial water (walking on water for our context is allowing
Him to do the impossible through our lives). What
is it that God has called you to accomplish? God gives vision to each of His
children and sustains our life so that we can do THAT. Often “that” can seem
like an impossible task…to start a ministry, to build churches, to heal the
sick, to give justice to the disenfranchised, to start a business, to share the
gospel with a co-worker, to home school your children, to be a husband or wife
that loves like Christ, etc. It can all seem overwhelming…as I imagine the
waves crashing around Peter appeared. But thank God that His loving hands
IMMEDIATELY lift us up as He did for Peter.
God desires for you to
walk on water, to TRUST Him, to TRUST His character and His love. Once we step out we have to purpose in our hearts to not be
moved by the circumstances that present themselves in our lives. We can’t
become anxious because that is the point where we began to spiral out of
control. Philippians 4:6-8 is a good scripture to plug in here.
Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything,
but in every circumstance and
in everything, by prayer and petition ([b]definite
requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God.
7 And God’s peace [shall be yours,
that [c]tranquil
state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing
from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that
peace] which transcends all understanding shall [d]garrison
and mount guard over your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
8 For the rest, brethren, whatever
is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and
is honorable and seemly,
whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and
gracious, if there is any virtue and
excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them].
Peter forgot about this scripture in the
instance where he saw the waves crashing. He became worried, concerned,
anxious, and nervous (typical flesh response). God calls us to respond with
spirit…and what gives us added benefit is that God’s very spirit lives within
us. Peter had Jesus physically there with Him which can seem most comforting,
but I’d argue that we are in a better position having the Holy Spirit LIVING inside
of us. It’s critical that we walk on
water and walking on water begins with FAITH in the LIVING God, Faith in Who
God Is and His Character, Faith in His Love (perfect love cast out fear and
Christ IS love), and Faith in His sovereignty. Be encouraged friends…Look to
Christ all of the time and follow the instructions in Philippians 4:6-8. God is
chiseling down the layers of our humanity and building something beautiful…Himself
within us. That is complete elevation. More to come next time!
With love,
Kristin
Sarai XO
