Matthew 14:28 ‘Lord, if it’s you,’ Peter replied, ‘tell me to come to you on the water.’

When Peter was walking on the water, he eventually lost focus on Christ and focused on the wind and the waves, then started to sink. This is a great analogy for our own lives.

Our waves are, “How am I supposed to pay off my financial debt,” “How am I supposed to repair my relationship,” and “How am I supposed to eat this pound of bacon?”

If we use this account as an analogy, we are Peter, the waves are the difficulties that arise, and Christ is, well, Christ. That’s the same in this passage and in real life. That one’s not that hard.

No one intends to doubt.  Half the times we pray we’re all excited about what we’re going to do for God. But then we get bills, or someone gets sick, or our basement floods, or politics go the wrong way, or the value of our home dropped, or our investments tanked, or unexpected repairs needs to be made, or hitting traffic causing you to be late for work, or having a terrible boss.

And instead of solidly walking on water, we start to sink.  

We get this feeling of dread or unease.  We lose our peace. That’s when we know we’re sinking.  Loss of peace.  Even if it’s just a bit.  Half the times the waves are two inches high and we don’t have peace.

The thing we have to remember that we’re all nervous while Christ is standing right there. But he doesn’t just save us from the waves… He controls the wind and the waves. We also need to remember that even though Peter took his eyes off of Christ and started to sink, Christ did not let him drown. He reached in and pulled Peter out.

So even if we don’t have faith, Christ still does not let us drown. Yeah we’ll still get wet and you’ll be soaked, but you won’t drown.

So what do we do?

It’s easy to say, “keep your eyes focused on Him.” But what does that really mean? You need to do two things.

1.  Know his promises. You have to have faith in His promises (which are in the Bible) like Romans 8:28.  But just cause we know these promises that “all things work together for the good of them that love God,” that doesn’t mean we actually feel peace right away.  

So we have to work at it. It’s because there’s more to it than just knowing his promises.  We have to believe it and also act on it. Keep a few key verses/promises in mind and be honest with yourself and God and ask God to help you to get to the point where you don’t just know his promises but you believe in them to much that it gives you a real peace.

2.  Know the one who made the promises. So yeah, know what his promises are – but also learn about the attributes of one who made those promises.  Then focus on those. God is faithful.  God is sovereign.  He is all-powerful.  And above all, he is love. Again, this is about scripture, but instead of verses like promises, look for passages that speak of God’s attributes, or passages like the story of Joseph of someone who went through trials and you saw why God allowed bad things to happen. If you read a passages like the story of Joseph you can see why God allowed bad things to happen – because he had a larger plan.  

Hopefully reading a passage like that will help you understand God and how he does things better.  And hopefully knowing God more will help you trust him more. So if we want to overcome doubt then we need to read passages that help you learn about on the one you are doubting because whether we like to admit it or not… Our doubt is really based in our doubt of him.   We think that he can’t save us from the wind and the waves – so we freak out. So we need to do our best to stay focused by being devoted to passages that remind us of his faithfulness.

So as you go about your day and you’re hit by wave after wave… …focus your eyes on Christ by trusting in both his promises and who he is.

Matthew 14:25-32 During the fourth watch of the night 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. But Jesus immediately said to them: ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.’ ‘Lord, if it’s you,’ Peter replied, ‘tell me to come to you on the water.’ ‘Come,’ he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’ And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’

Today’s Fruit of the Spirit: Faithfulness. Take time to Pray: Ask God for faith in times of trouble.