“But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.”
Wow! What an experience for Peter and what a testimony for us today. God, the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Now I said that because God doesn’t change and He has no respect of persons. If He allowed Peter to walk on water, He will do the same for us. Okay, we may not acutally walk on water – though if God were to command it we could – but understand what is being illustrated here. Jesus came to the disciples walking on water. Peter saw it and desired to do the same thing. They knew Jesus was the Son of God but what did that really mean to them? They had heard Him teach with wisdom and authority like none other. They had seen Him do miracles: heal people, feed multitudes, cast out devils, but was any of that personal enough to get them to truly know and believe who He was? You know how some of us are…”I know He can do it for Ruthy Mae and Johnny; I’ve seen Him do it, but will He, can He do it for me?”
Peter made a request of Jesus and Jesus granted it. Peter got out the boat and was walking on water. He was doing the impossible! At the moment he stepped out of the boat, he was full of faith. “Jesus said it, I can do it,” was probably his thought. He trusted Jesus’ word to come! But then something happened. Peter began to notice what was going on around him. His environment began to speak to him and remind him that this wasn’t something that naturally he should be doing. He bought it and began to sink and called out to Jesus to save him. Jesus grabbed him by the hand and, still walking on water, the two of them went to the boat with the others. OK, so we know with God all things are possible. While Peter was with Jesus, they two, walked on water back to the boat. But what about when Jesus is afar off? Well Peter still walked on water as long as he acted in faith on Jesus’ command to come.
So too with us. We can do the impossible, that which our nature and environment says we can’t or shouldn’t be able to do, when God gives us the green light, nothing is impossible! We must learn to step out on faith having received the word from God. That is the word we need to keep first and foremost in our thinking because if we become distracted by other things: what’s going on in the economy, what people are saying about us, how the job and housing markets look, etc, these things will eventually pull us down. Then we will have to call on God to save us and His reply will be, “Where is your faith? Why did you doubt?” Why did you doubt His word and let “things” erode your faith?
This is a lesson to us that no matter what it looks like, no matter how bad it seems, how we feel or think, we have to depend on God’s word. If God said it, that settles it. This is how we increase our faith, by trusting in and acting on God’s word. Go ahead, try it, I dare you!
