Articles
Walking On The Water
And Peter answered him and said, "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee upon the waters."
And he said, "Come."
And Peter went down from the boat, and walked upon the waters to come to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me."
And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and took hold of him, and saith unto him, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" (Matthew 14:28-31).
The five thousand men had just been fed. The disciples were out on the water while Jesus prayed on the mountain. A contrary wind was impeding the boat's progress; they were still in the middle of the Sea of Galilee in the early morning hours before the dawn. And then the disciples saw a most astounding thing!
A figure is walking across the water, and they quite understandably believe that it is a ghost (cf. Matthew 14:26). Jesus assures them that it is He. Here is One who can feed five thousand with five loaves and two fishes, and He can also walk on water to boot!
Peter then has one of his famous moments as a disciple. It is difficult to read his motivations here. Is he still not quite sure that the figure before him is Jesus, and therefore is indicating a lack of trust in the Voice he hears? And yet he asks Jesus to invite him out onto the water, a request that surely takes some level of faith? If nothing else we see that impetuous Peter has confidence in the powers of Jesus-- at least initially.
Jesus tells him to come, and Peter walks on the water. We can only imagine the rush that Peter must have felt as he was doing something that mere mortals had never done. As long as he moved in full confidence of Jesus, all was well.
But then "reality" sank in. Peter sees the wind and experiences a loss of confidence. When the very thing that sustained him collapsed, so did he. He begins to sink and Jesus must rescue him, asking Peter to probe in his heart why his faith wavered.
Recently I have been working with my eldest daughter in trying to help her learn how to ride her bicycle without training wheels. She must learn how to balance herself properly. When she looks forward and keeps focused, she balances. But when she looks down for a moment, the confidence fades, and she lists to one side or the other.
Our faith, therefore, is a lot like bicycle riding. When we look forward, confidently trusting in Jesus and seeking His will, we are able to accomplish things that the conscious mind can barely imagine. But when the eye of our faith strays from the Lord and looks at the "reality" of the world, and our confidence wavers, we find ourselves stumbling, falling over or sinking.
In reality, the circumstances have not changed. The wind was there when Peter was walking on the water. When my daughter is balancing the bicycle the ground is still there. The challenge in such circumstances is being willing to overcome our doubts and our fears through our faith-- to triumphantly and confidently trust in and depend on God in Christ no matter how dire the circumstances may seem or how hard it may seem if "reality" begins to set in.
The difference between little faith and great faith does not regard blindness to reality. Instead, the difference between little faith and great faith involves what we do when challenges come. If challenges to our faith come, and we allow those challenges to overcome our faith, then our faith was too little. But if challenges come and we persist in our faith despite those challenges, then our faith proves to be strong.
There are always times of stumbling. Even though my daughter does not want to think about it, the reality is that she will fall plenty of times before she learns how to ride the bike well. This story is not the last time Peter will hear regarding the smallness of his faith. And yet it is through those moments of stumbling that Peter develops the great faith of his apostleship, proving willing to suffer and even die for the Name of Christ (cf. Acts 5:41).
The life of faith is not guaranteed to be easy. Believers will be challenged. Many times they will stumble, and their faith will prove insufficient for the day. Nevertheless, we must continue to persevere and grow in the faith (cf. 2 Peter 3:18). Let us develop strong faith, trusting in the Lord no matter how challenging "reality" might be!
