Have you ever tried to walk on water? I would imagine it
would be a very frightful thing to attempt and an even more fearful and awe
filled feat to fulfill. I know that there are times in my life that
I think God is just about asking me to walk on water, with the things that He
has put before me.
God has asked me to stretch my faith in directions I never would
have thought to stretch my faith. He has asked me to get out of the boat
and just like He told Peter, Come!
There are so many times that Jesus has asked me to take a step of
faith, or come to Him, and I stood my ground in fear, in doubt and
unbelief. I didn’t listen to the voice of my God telling me to get out of
the boat and walk on the water, for whatever plan He had for me.
Let’s face it, technically, we don't have to walk on water, because
most of the things that God asks us to do is just like Peter walking on water,
to us. God doesn’t ask us to do small things that are easy for us
to do, no He pushes, He pulls, He stretches and then He stretches some more.
He’s like the trainer you always wanted to have, but then when you
got him, you wished you wouldn’t have asked for it. God will give
you the work out of your life, if you only heed His commands.
Peter was diligent and listened to Jesus when He told him to Come!
Again, as we see the exclamation point, that is telling us that Jesus spoke
frankly, intensely and with force. Jesus was not giving Peter a
suggestion; He was giving Peter a command.
We see that when Peter listened to the command that Jesus gave
him, that he was able to do exactly what he had requested from Jesus in the
first place. We see that Peter was actually the one who asked Jesus to
command him to come to Him. Peter was in a way testing Jesus. In
verse 28 And Peter answered Him, Lord, if it is you; command me to come to You
on the water.
Peter was testing Jesus to see if the image they saw, and were
afraid of, was indeed Jesus, and if it was to prove Himself by commanding Peter
to come to Him. The only way Peter would be able to get to Jesus, was by
walking to Him, and walking to Him on water.
This is a great metaphor for our own lives. We pray, beg,
plead and ask a million times for God to give us something, bless us with
something and then when we have it, we are lost in what to do with it, or how
to handle what we have received. A lot of times we end up feeling
burdened by the thing, we have been praying for.
Peter was like this. Peter was so enamored with Jesus and so
connected and zoned into Jesus that he forgot about his own abilities.
Peter forgot that he wasn’t supposed to be walking on water. He wasn’t
capable of walking on water… in his own strength.
You see Peter wasn’t walking on water in his own ability; he was
walking on water, in the ability bestowed upon him from Jesus. Jesus had
transferred His super natural abilities to Peter in that moment, because Peter
was so connected to Jesus, and he was able to complete his command…
until.
We are so very much like Peter in our lives. We command to
have something, be able to be blessed with something and then it comes.
Now, what do we do? We are able to live in the blessing for a moment, and think
how Great our God is for giving us what we have been wanting but that moment
fades, that moment, just like the shiny penny, goes away.
We now have to hold on to that faith, that feeling of being
blessed and walking in the glory of God, and the ability of Jesus to handle the
blessing properly. And soon, just like Peter, we sink.
Soon we take our eyes of Jesus and put them on ourselves and we
have broken that connection that gave us the ability in the first place.
As soon as we begin to take the glory, the accomplishment, the blessing and put
the focus on us instead of on God, where it is meant to be, we will surely
sink, just like Peter.
(30) But when he perceived and felt the strong wind, he was
frightened, and as he began to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me (from death).
I can’t even begin to count how many times I have done the same
thing. I am sure the number is in the thousands, if not more. The
moments that I thought I had everything together, just like Peter, and then the
moment where the storm comes, the wave comes, or the fear creeps in, and BAM I am
sinking.
Well what happens when you sink? You either die or you find
something or someone, to save you. In this situation Peter called
out to the only one he knew would save him from death, and that was Jesus.
I’ve called out to Jesus many times, and some times, many times a day!
I have taken the gift that I was given from God and allowed it to
trample me or overwhelm me to the point that the blessing has now become a
curse in my eyes, and I needed my Savior to come and save me once again.
I have cried out Jesus Help me, so many times and each time He
has!!!
Just like Jesus extended His arm to reach in the water and save
Peter from his death, Jesus will save you from whatever is trying to kill you.
I love in verse 31 it says instantly. Instantly!
Instantly
Jesus reached out His hand and caught and held him, saying to him, O you of
little faith, why did you doubt?
There are many layers of meaning in this sentence and I could
probably go on and on about this one sentence, but the obvious one, is Jesus
saved him, without questions, without thought, instantly!
He will do the same thing for you!
Jesus will instantly
reach to grasp you from the storm that has caught you up in its midst, and free
you from yourself. He will take the storm and cause it to cease by
speaking one word. Jesus will never allow you to drown in the storms of
life, He will always be there to protect and save you, when you have gone too
far.
The second really important thing to see about verse 31, is why
Peter began to sink. Yes, we know that Peter took his eyes off of Jesus,
and put them on his situation, but do you see that when we take our eyes off of
Jesus, we are also removing our faith in Jesus.
Faith is what is pleasing to God. We know that without faith
we can’t please God, which means we can’t please Jesus either. We can’t
expect to walk in the power of someone we don’t have faith in.
Let me say that again, more for me than you… We can’t expect to
walk in the power of someone we don’t have faith in.
Faith is the key, it’s the gas that starts the car, it’s the key
that unlocks the front door, and it’s the golden ticket. Faith is what
activates God. It’s what allows God to say, Yes!!!
Come! Faith!
When we have our eyes on Jesus and not our surroundings, the
things we think we should have, but don’t, our health issues, our loneliness,
our lack of money or lack of anything, we are stopping God’s ability to
work. Why? Because we are stopping our faith!
If faith is what allowed Peter to walk on water, and when he looked
around at his circumstances that stopped the faith from working and he began to
sink, wouldn’t you think that faith is the activator!
You put your faith in Jesus, in God and never in yourself, as
Peter did. You put your faith in the one who gave you faith, and not in
your circumstances, and you will not only be able to walk on water but you will
probably be able to run on water.
There are so many lessons in these four verses but to me, I think
the main lesson is, Faith. We must MUST have it to operate in the
abilities of Jesus. We must have faith if we want to achieve
the plans that God has for us. We must have faith to make it through the
little things, so we will learn to rely on it in the big things.
Jesus’s hand will always be there to pull us from the pit when we
have a lapse in faith, but if you don’t have faith in the hand itself, how can
the hand ever save you? You must first believe, to be able to ask
and then be able to receive!
Without faith it is impossible to please God, and without faith it
is impossible to unlock the gifts and blessings that God has waiting for
you. You will never be able to walk on water or even down the street,
without placing your faith in the one who gave it to you… Jesus!
Put your faith in the only hand that can save you from the storm
and cause it to cease!!!
Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment