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Sometimes I feel like I have great faith. Other times I feel like I am running … well, more like crawling … on empty.
Jesus knew Peter was destined to be the rock upon which He would build His Church.
Peter showed great faith when he decided to get out of the boat and walk to Jesus on the water.
Have you ever had those mountaintop experiences when you were absolutely sure you could change the world for Jesus?
But you could not maintain it. The real world came crashing in and soon you were back in the valley, unable to climb to even the first hill?
Peter could not maintain his great faith. When he took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the world around him, he became afraid.
He began to sink and he became even more afraid. But he did do something right after that. He recognized his inability to save himself. He called out to Jesus to save him.
Many translations say, Jesus said to Peter, “Why did you doubt?”
We might interpret that different ways, including “Why did you doubt yourself?”
I like The New Living Translation because it cuts to the heart of the matter.
Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt Me?”
Matthew 14:31
Why would we ever doubt God? Satan cannot change God’s Love, Provision, Protection and so many other Gifts God has given us.
But he can try to distract us so we forget. When we look back at things that happened to us, we just see the negatives and we forget all the good God brought out of the negatives.
Satan started with Adam and Eve by tempting them to doubt whether God had provided everything He could for them.
He then tempted them to doubt God’s Power to provide and even worse, if He had The Power, His unwillingness to use it for their good.
Satan will try the same tactics on us. When we realize we are in a pickle and we conclude God’s not coming, we think we have to handle things ourselves.
When we discover how powerless we are, we become afraid. That is the turning point.
Satan will be waiting, promising to give us instant help. But God is also present, as He always has been, ready, willing and able to give us everything we need.
When you feel you do not have enough faith to even get out of the boat, much less keep walking on the water, remember where you get Great Faith.
God actually does not expect us to manufacture Great Faith ourselves. He simply asks us to give Him what we have and let Him magnify it.
He has a long history of doing just that. Empty wine containers, loaves and fishes, and people, like Peter and Paul who were lost and became Powerhouses of faith.
If you are wobbling right now, hear Jesus speaking to you,
“Why did you doubt Me?”
“Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you!”
Matthew 17:20
