Fix your eyes!
Spiritual Formation
Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “o you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Matthew 14:31
Wow, that’s harsh right? I mean, Peter is the guy that got out of the boat, in the ocean, during a storm at night! And Jesus rebukes him saying “o you of little faith”. I look at this story through the lens of my own life. When I have been pushed to my faith limit, when fear and doubt are all around me and I don’t know what God has in store for me. Jesus knew what was in store for himself and his disciples. He knew that their faith had to be stretched to capacity. He was proving himself worthy to be trusted. The passage before this was the miraculous feeding of the five thousand (Matthew 14:13-21) where he fed the crowd with 5 loaves and 2 fish and had 12 baskets left over- amazing! I’m sure the disciples were looking around as they gathered that up and thought ‘this is awesome’. They had seen other miracles, too during their time following him. Each one to build their faith to work out any doubt that they may have about trusting in Jesus. I imagine Peter looking at Jesus in this moment of getting out of the boat. The scripture reads: And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Matthew 14:28-30
I have had these moments, haven’t you? You’re trusting Jesus, you have great faith, you know the goodness of God, you experience his miraculous provision. Don’t take your eyes off Jesus. Yes,the wind and the deep water is scary, but Jesus is there- fix your eyes, don’t doubt! He is trustworthy and will not let you sink!
"Thank you for telling me what I needed to hear and not what I wanted to hear; and doing it in the most loving and stern way I've ever seen!"
- Amanda I.