I love the story of Jesus walking on the water; we can read about it on Matthew 14, there are a few things we could focus on:
- Jesus demonstrating his deity as he defies the laws of nature and walks on water
- The flimsy faith of Peter as he first shows courage and then sinks for his lack of faith
- How the other 11 stayed on the boat, etc
But let’s talk more about our good pal Peter
28Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.”
29“Yes, come,” Jesus said.
Let’s not lose sight of the fact that everyone on that boat were in the middle of a storm (a scary one), the Bible tells that they were fighting heavy waves, and when they see Jesus they freak out, do you blame them? I would be one of the freaked out ones; I mean… who walks on water? No one right? They had no clue what it was that they were seeing, but Jesus tells them:
“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here”
But despite Jesus words, the storm is still raging, and I don’t know about you but I would be thinking, cool Jesus you obviously you don’t know nothing about physics but I do, and water can’t hold me up the surface…
And when your life depends on how good a little boat can stand the rage of the sea and you can tell the waves are winning it’s not easy to keep calm.
And what was Peter thinking? I have no clue what he thought was going to happen but something went completely wrong cause we all know what happened next…
30 But when he saw the strong
wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink.
But don’t we all go thru that experience? Or is it all rose and bunnies? How many times things dong go as you planned them? The school year is not as easy as you thought it would be, that professor seems to be speaking a foreign language; you made an investment thinking it was pretty safe but now you regret taking that step, you took the challenge of a new role in the company and the new responsibilities overwhelm you. Etc.
Sometimes we take a step of faith in the middle of a life storm and we hope that as soon as we step in faith the storm will stop and the sun will come out once again and that’s hardly the case, the storm keeps raging as before and just as Peter we shout… “Save me, Lord!”
I don’t want us to focus on the fact that Peter doubted and he sank, you and I would have the same outcome, but in that moment of terror when he saw himself lost, as soon as he recognized the danger he was in, the Bible tells us that he didn’t try to swim back to the boat, nor he asked help from his friends, his immediate reaction was to ask for help to the only one with the power to rescue him, that’s the key!, the only one who could save him from the storm he was in was the only one not being affected by it.
the only one who can save you from the storm you are in, is the only one not being affected by it.
Jesus not only saves him from drowning, His next move is to guide Peter back to the boat walking on the same water that was pulling him down seconds before.
How many steps Peter walked from the boat to Jesus?,,, no one knows but with Jesus he walked all the necessary steps to go from the drowning place to the safe place inside the boat, and once there, the winds stopped.
Let me leave you with this…
The worst moment in your life, that moment you fear the most and from which you are trying to desperately escape can be the most memorable moment of your life, it can be just the place where your best story will come to life.