It is fairly common knowledge that Jesus walked on water. Even unbelievers know the story. They use "walk on water" as a metaphor for the perfect person. What a lot of people don't realize is that Jesus was not the only one in that story to do it. If you recall, the disciples were in a boat in a storm when Jesus came strolling along. They were, understandably, terrified. But Jesus said, "Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid" (Matt 14:27). So brazen Peter called out, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water" (Matt 14:28), and He did. So, the text says, "Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus" (Matt 14:29). Amazing! Startling! Actually, very cool! So why isn't Peter thought of in the phrase "walk on water"? Well, because the very next thing he did was look away from the Master and look at the wind and waves ... and he began to sink (Matt 14:30).
We live in turbulent times. Sin is rampant, even applauded and encouraged. The undercurrent in our society is more and more anti-Christian. There is death and destruction, diseases and disasters, conspiracies and confusion -- lots and lots of reasons to be concerned. So what do we do? Let us not do what Peter did. Let's not set our eyes on the storm, but look, instead, at the Savior who called us to be here.
Now, I'm sure, in theory, you can see the wisdom of such a course of action. You know, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Php 4:6-7). Or how about "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things" (Php 4:8)? That kind of thing. So how do we do that when we spend so much time on the news, current events, Facebook/Instagram/etc., the Internet ... all things aimed at churning the waters and getting our eyes on the storm and not Christ? Maybe ... just maybe we would do well to reconsider the inordinate amount of time we seem to spend on the storm and look to the Savior instead. We, too, can walk on water.
1 comment:
It is really difficult to not look at the floundering nature of our culture and see the apparent validity in the claim that Christianity will be dead in 50 years. But then I look to Jesus and realize, the World has been saying that since our inception.
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