Journey Through The Bible
   Old Testament Reading: Nehemiah 11-13
   New Testament Reading: Matthew 14

Immediately Jesus spoke to them. “Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter answered him, “command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” And climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand, caught hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:27-31).

It is interesting to note that when Peter realized it was Jesus walking on the water; he did not just jump up and step out of the boat. He first asked Jesus, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water, and Jesus said, Come. I think that is important because we need to look to God first to get direction from Him.

Billy Graham once said, “Instead of asking God to bless our plans, ask Him instead to show you His plans, and then give you the strength to follow them.”

We should always ask Jesus what His plans are for us, whether for our life or our church. Jesus is the head of the church. It doesn’t matter who the pastor is or who the leaders are. Jesus is the one in control of the church. He is the one who is to lead the church and we are to look to Him for His plans for His church. Then when we find those plans, we are to ask to be a part of them.

Then and only then can we step out in faith. We are to put our faith in Jesus and step out of the boat. You can’t walk on water if you stay in the boat. You must take that step of faith.

Peter stepped out of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. Here you have a man that grew up on the water. His father was a fisherman and Peter acquired the business from his father and now he was a fisherman. How many times had he jumped over the side of the boat and swam in the water? Here he starts to step out of the boat in the middle of the storm. I can just imagine Peter as he lifts his foot to step over the side of the boat thinking, “what in the world did I get myself into this time?”

But he had enough faith to step out of the boat and he walked on the water. What an awesome experience that must have been!

Once we step out in faith, the storms in life will come. Satan doesn’t want us walking with Jesus. In the dark of the night, we will hear the wind whistling. We’ll hear the waves as they beat against the side of the boat. The waves will try to distract us from Jesus. We need to keep our eyes on Jesus and not the circumstances around us.

Sometimes it is the people left in the boat. We are out there walking with Jesus and those that don’t have the faith to step out themselves will question us. They ask us what we are doing? Telling us what we are doing is not normal. They plead with us to come back in the boat. They need us to do our part and row the boat. The people left in the boat will often try to get us to stop walking with Jesus.

We must keep our eyes on Jesus. It is when Peter took his eyes off Jesus that he started to sink into the water. Your faith is strongest when you focus on His power and His love for us. The disciples struggled to row across the lake, but Jesus walked on top of the waves. When we focus on the problems around us, we tend to doubt God’s power.

Nothing changed about Jesus. It was Peter’s doubt that caused him to sink. But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. (James 1:6)