Water-Walking Faith

“Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.

Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them saying, ‘Be of good cheer! It is I: do not be afraid.’

And Peter answered Him and said, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.’ So He said, ‘Come.’ And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, ‘Lord, save me!’

And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, ‘Truly You are the Son of God.’” Matthew 14:22-33

Nine out of ten messages we’ve heard about this passage have always emphasized Peter’s failure. While he was walking on the water he took his eyes off Jesus, he focused on the circumstances around him and he began to sink. I want to suggest to you that there is a much bigger failure that takes place in this story than Peter’s. Peter’s failure is nothing compared to the failure of the Eleven who remained in the boat.

We need to understand that the way that the world measures success and failure is vastly different from God’s method of measuring success and failure. The world measures our success by how much money we have in the bank, the kind of house we live in, the car we drive and the world doesn’t really care how you achieve those things. As far as the world is concerned the end justifies the means; it doesn’t matter how many people you have to cheat or steal from or step on to get what you want.

But God says the way up is down. Humble yourself and God will exalt you. The way to greatness is by serving others. The greatest Person who ever lived washed the feet of the twelve men who were inside that boat. The key to success from God’s standpoint is faithfulness and how you treat other people is extremely important to God. In John’s gospel the way you treat others is the way you’ve treated Him. “In as much as you’ve done it to the least of these, you’ve done it to Me.”

God’s order of things doesn’t measure failure by how many times you’ve tried to obey God and failed. God measures failure by how many times you didn’t bother trying. Failure in the kingdom is measured by our refusal to take steps of faith and obedience to God. The scriptures say that without faith it is impossible to please God.

In the parable of the servants and the talents: one servant was given five, one was given two and one was given one talent. The failure was the servant who buried his talent and did nothing with it. What is interesting to note is that the two who were commended by the Lord were not commended because they had doubled their money, that’s the world’s standard. They were commended because they were faithful. They were faithful in the little and because of it they were given much more!

Our focus on this passage about Peter walking on the water with Jesus has been skewed and misdirected for a long time. Our opinion of who really failed has been all wrong. Did Peter fail? Sure, he did. We can’t discount the fact that He should have kept his eyes on the Lord and not on the situation around him which caused him to sink into it, or the fact that the Lord gently rebuked him for it.

But his failure was nothing compared to the failure of the other eleven who never set foot out of the boat.

The boat symbolizes our comfort zone, our routines, the present circumstances that we feel secure in; and we don’t want anyone to cause waves and rock our boats.

Here’s news: God wants to rock the boat!

The water is the next level God wants us to take in our life. It’s that thing that God has been dealing with us about to challenge us to leave our comfort zone. It’s the place where God wants to stretch us and cause us to grow. It takes a lot of faith to step out of the boat and leave behind what’s familiar and comfortable and to step out into obedience into the unknown.

Staying in the boat makes us feel safe and secure, doesn’t it? We’ve been in the boat for a long time and we’re comfortable. But this same truth was the failure of the Eleven who stayed in the boat or anyone of us when we refuse to step out of the boat when the Lord says, “Come on, let’s take a walk on the water.”

You see the Eleven wouldn’t step out in faith. They allowed fear to hold them back. Taking a step out in faith is always a scary thing. Amen? Why? Because you’ve never tried it before. Why then do we stay in our boats and hesitate when God calls us out?

We fault Peter an awful lot for many of the things he did but at least he had the guts to try things. Here he sees Jesus walking on the water, everyone else thinks it’s a ghost and the Lord says it’s Him and Peter says, “Can I play?” And the Lord says, “Come on” and he steps out and walks.

Familiar surroundings give us a sense of predictability and comfort and security. We think we’re safe in our boat. In our minds it is a comfort zone. But it is actually a false sense of comfort and security.

True peace, true comfort and security is wherever Jesus is and Jesus wasn’t in the boat, He was walking on water.

When we look at the truth concerning success and failure, we will never succeed in this walk of faith if we’re not where the Lord is. Jesus is not in the boat. He’s not in the so-called place of comfort and security. To have it, you need to be where He is and to get to where He is you have to get out of the boat!

Even if that means you are going to step out onto a sea with rough waves. Peace is not the absence of storms and waves but it is a confidence and faith in the Lord to keep us in spite of the storms.

Don’t be like the Eleven, be willing to get out of the boat no matter how uncomfortable it may be. The wind is going to blow when we’re taking steps of faith.

When you step out of the boat, keep your eyes on the Lord. But if you should take your eyes off of Him just call out to Him.

Peter learned something that the others will never know. Even though he failed, he had the gumption to step out and because of that, he knew the thrill of walking on water. The others would never know that. He also experienced the joy of being lifted by the Lord in a moment of despair. He knew in a way that the other Eleven couldn’t that if he were to sink, the Lord would save him.

The Lord wants you to step out. He will give you water-walking faith. No matter what the circumstances are around you, the One who created the winds and the seas is right there with you and He will be there every step of the way!

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