Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly
make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare
it as fearlessly as possible.
Thank God for Peter!
Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” He said, “why did you doubt?” Matthew 14:31
I guess I have read the story about Jesus walking on the water 100 times from my childhood up until now. But tonight, God has revealed things to me about this passage that I have never noticed before. I am excited to share them with you…
One dark and stormy night, the disciples decide to go fishing and Jesus goes to pray. The Bible says that during the fourth watch (about 3:00 a.m.), Jesus goes out to them and tells them not to be afraid. I’m sure all of the disciples were nervous about this figure walking out toward them! But Peter decides that even in his fear, he will call out to Jesus. I think that sometimes, because of pride or fear, I fail to call out to my Lord for help. Yes Peter was impulsive, but he was the only one who tried to get to Jesus. Jesus then tells Peter to come to Him. Peter does well while he’s walking on the water and looking toward Jesus. But the moment…the very instant Peter takes his eyes of Christ, he begins to sink and panic. And then, the best part of the story happens: Jesus immediately reached out His hand to help Peter. After all the times I had read that story, I had never noticed the word ‘immediately’. Jesus immediately came to Peter’s rescue. Why? Because that’s who He is. How ashamed I feel for the countless times I have worried that God-Jehovah-is going to forget me or not help me in time! But I realized something else. Peter had to be close to Jesus in order for Jesus to reach out his hand to help him. That to, is often our problem. We want immediate help or God’s outstretched hand when we are so very far away from that hand to begin with. Out of the 12 disciples, the one that was always sticking his foot in his mouth, always acting impulsively and saying the right thing at the wrong time, the one who Jesus seemed to always be correcting, is none other than Peter. In the beginning, we find that Jesus changed the name of this famous apostle from Simeon to Peter. Ironically, Peter means “Rock”. It seems hard for us to grasp why Jesus would give this great name which meant ’stability’ or ’strength’ to a man that proved to be the very opposite. But if we look deeper, we find a man who had a passionate love for Christ. Peter was the only one willing to get out of the boat and even try. Peter was always the spokesperson for the disciples and he asked alot of questions. But Peter got to know Jesus. I believe God lets us glimpse into the life of Peter because He wants us to see that we are going to make bad decisions, say the wrong things, and act before we think. But God also shows us a man that was transformed by a relationship with Christ who eventually fit the very name Jesus gave him–Rock. Jesus knew, even when no one else could see, that Peter loved Him. Jesus knew that He had left an impression on the heart of Peter and that Peter would be who He would ‘build his church upon’. I thank God for letting me read about Peter’s life and transformation. It makes me ask myself the question of ‘can God build his church upon me?’ Is the relationship that I have with Christ as passionate or as impressionable as Jesus and Peter’s? I hope that it will be.
As I said, I have learned many things from this passage. But the one thing I have learned that I will always remember is that I must stay close to God. For as long as I keep my eyes on Jesus, I will not be afraid to walk out onto the dangerous waters…
Love,
Corrie
My prayer for today:
Lord, praise you for allowing me to see how you want my relationship with you to be. Help me to never take my eyes off you when you call me to come to you. My trust grows for you every day. I also thank you for allowing me to see myself in Peter. Thank you for taking my failures and teaching me how to love you more…
Corrie, I thank the Holy Spirit for speaking the word “immediately” to you in this passage. I have researched all a.m. and it means duh…immediately. The word can also be translated “without hesitation”. You know my problem with patience, and it is reassuring to see the examples of His rescuing His children in scripture after acripture. Thank you for reminding me that He is the God of immediately when we are frightened by our circumstances and take our eyes off Him. I do that way more than Peter! But, like him, I know who Jesus is. Please ask your bloggers to pray that I will overcome this stonghold.
I believe that one of the main reasons that we “take our eyes off of God” often is that we allow ourselves to get caught up in the “rush” of our daily activities. I have to practice constantly just “slowing down”, being aware that I live within the shadow of The Almighty, and this helps me. Loved this “sharing” of yours.
Lucy
Hey, you know something else about Peter in this passage? Instead of just staying afraid and hiding, he questioned Jesus (v. 28) like he was kinda testing to see if the voice that had spoken to them from this ghost-like figure on the water was really the voice of the Messiah. Jesus didn’t scold him and tell him that he should be ashamed for his momentary doubt in the voice he heard. Instead, Jesus called to him and told him to come (v.29) and Peter just jumped right out of that boat and started walking. He may have doubted the calling and may have even been afraid as he stepped out of that boat but he was obedient and for that he was rewarded. Peter’s reward for obedience in that instant was that he was only the second man EVER to walk on water. Yeah, he faltered some after he was walking and Jesus had to come to his rescue BUT he got to walk because he was obedient DESPITE his fear and doubt. Man, I want to WALK!!
Hey Corrie! This is great! I would like to share how it hit me personally…sorry, it’s very wordy!!! First, I love this picture of intimacy that He offers to me too, that I can come to him in my fear and trust that He will immediately catch me and bring my head back above water! Through what you wrote I got that Peter shared an intimacy with Christ that is seemingly different from what the other disciples had with Him. Peter knew Him enough to call out to Him in his fear. Jesus is teaching this concept to me right now! To not let any feeling like fear talk me into not trusting Him, but instead, to let that feeling drive me to call out to Him in the very midst of it, just like Peter did! It is so freeing for me to just go ahead and know that in this life I will stumble, but Jesus will always be there to IMMEDIATELY come to my rescue. I love that! I gotta grow in my belief of this by growing in the knowledge of who He is. I gotta grow in my trust of Him so that I won’t give into the temptation to distrust Jesus with my feelings and keep them from Him. I love how you said Peter was the only one willing to get out of the boat and make a fool of himself to try to go to Christ. Peter didn’t care that the others may have been laughing at him for trying to walk on water and then sinking, he had his eyes focused in on getting to where Jesus. I want to be like that too!
Sorry this was long, I probably shouldn’t have crowded your comments section with all this rambling, and part of me feels really bad for it…but the other part doesn’t. Haha!!! I just love loving God and His word with you, sis. Love you, Have a great day!