“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 came down out of the ship, He walked on the water, to go to Jesus.” –Matthew 14: 28-29
Throughout the Bible, did you know that it’s only Jesus and Peter who walked on water?
Peter walked on water because he chose Jesus. He chose to fix his eyes and place his confidence in his Savior. He did not allow his faith to be taken over by fear.
“And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they came into the ship, the wind ceased.” –Matthew 14: 31-32
But just as Peter began to walk on water, he started paying attention to his senses, his flesh, and the circumstances that surrounded him. Because of this, fear took over, doubt took over, anxiety took over, and he eventually started sinking. Upon realizing that he gave into his fear, he cried out “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately stretched His hand, and caught him.
Faith is From the Heart but Fear is What You Get From Your Senses.
We face thousands of decisions everyday the moment we wake up until we lie our heads back to bed when our day ends. When we choose to give into fear and let it control the course of our lives, we would not be living the way God has designed it to be.
Romans 1:17 teaches us that we move from faith to faith, not from faith to fear. So when we subscribe to faith, it is required and critical that we also continue to walk in faith. But just because we have Jesus in our life and hold His Word, it does not mean that we won’t get attacked. In fact, being attacked is not a sign of unbelief, it would expose the condition of our heart on whether we subscribe to faith or fear.
So be careful. The trick of the adversary is to attack our faith. Whenever our faith comes under attack, do not compromise and give in because though we start in the spirit, we might end up in the flesh. So what do we do when fear starts to cripple into our lives?
Deal With the Causes, Not the Symptoms.
In Mark 4:35-41, the disciples unfortunately gave into the fear of drowning as they were caught up in the middle of a storm one evening. The moment they looked at Jesus, they were surprised to see Him sleeping soundly in the midst of what was happening. As they were trembling with fear, they finally woke Jesus up. And the first thing He did? He spoke to the wind, and NOT the storm.
Jesus decided to go after what was causing the storm, and just when He did, the wind died down and became completely calm.
So what’s our takeaway?
When we’re dealing with a storm in our lives, just like what Jesus did, we need to ask God to reveal the cause, and speak to it! It is time to dig deeper and address the root cause because things would not calm down if we just deal with the things we can see.
We are in a unique season where things can get out of hand quickly. In a season where confusion, fear, and doubt can slowly take over our lives if we fail to fix our eyes to our Savior.
It’s time for us to move forward and fight the good fight of faith.
