If you have kept up with my blog you have heard me talk about Peter walking on water. If you haven't then here ya go!
I love that story but recently I have seen a different view of it. Yesterday we had a staff meeting and my boss was talking about the account in Mark 6 of Jesus walking on water. It was after He fed the 5,000 and went by himself on a mountain top to pray. I love the parts in scripture talking about Jesus going away to pray.
It says that "When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land. Seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, at about the fourth watch of the night He came to them walking on the sea..." (emphasis mine)
"Seeing them straining..." I have never picked up on that point before. Christ was on land and He could see them struggling through the storm. He knew they needed help. He could see them through the storm. Because He saw them, He walked out to them. My boss went onto say that in the midst of our storms Jesus sees us. He knows what we are struggling through. He can see the storm around us. A lot of times we pray for things to be easy, but I think God puts us through storms to make us stronger and to make us trust Him more. Scripture talks about how God never gives us more than we can handle and if He does He will give us a way out of it. He gives us way more than we can handle so we can learn to trust Him when we are in the middle of the storms.
Another thing I noticed was that yes, Jesus is walking on water. That is so cool! He calms the storm and saves Peter when he starts to sink and takes his eyes of Christ. But I think sometimes I forget that Peter walked on water too. He is the only guy I know, normal guy, to walk on water. (Well, I don't personally know him but you know what I mean.) How cool is that! He had the guts to take that step and actually do it.
I can't even imagine his thought process, "Oh wow I am walking on water. Look at me I am walking on water! Oh crap. I am walking on water. How is this possible? I am going to sink and the waves are going to knock me..." Well, that would be what I would be thinking. I feel like I second guess myself when I am doing something crazy. I start to tell myself, "How are you doing this? This doesn't make any sense." And that is when I feel like I look at the waves instead of on Christ. Those waves are doubts that can pull us under. Christ stands there with a smile on His face just saying, "Yes, you are walking on water! Trust that you can do this because I am here with you. I see that you're struggling and that you don't believe you can do it. But keep your eyes on Me and it will be ok."
In one moment Peter decided to act out of courage and take a step and WALK ON WATER! I want to keep taking steps of courage, even when I feel like I don't have it.
This summer I got a tattoo. My first one. It is on my foot and it says...can you guess?? Walk on Water. There was a week this summer I was really stressed with work and I was feeling really overwhelmed. I was struggling to just hold it together and I felt God telling me to stop looking at the waves because I was starting to drown. I have wanted a tattoo for 4 years or so now and I decided to act on it. Kinda crazy and you may not agree with tattoos and that is ok. It works for me and I love it as a reminder.
I will close with one of my new favorite songs. Oceans by Hillsong. I found out about it this past spring. If you haven't heard it I suggest you plug it in and close your eyes and just let the words wash over you.
Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
let me walk upon the waters
wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than me feet could ever wander
and my faith will be made stronger
in the presence of my Savior
No comments:
Post a Comment