The Walk

To become a follower of Jesus is indeed a journey. If you were like me, when you prayed to receive Jesus as your Savior and Lord, there was great excitement about the path that lay ahead of you. I was ravenous for God’s word. I wanted to know more, and so I studied. As I began to mature both physically and spiritually, I had a passion to be more involved in Kingdom work.

I don’t think we ever really consider the cost of what it means to follow Jesus. We only think of the blessing that lies ahead for us. It isn’t till later that we realize there is a great cost in being a follower of the King. Peter found out very quickly that there is not always smooth sailing on the sea of obedience. In Matthew 14, towards the end of the chapter, we see a very familiar text. It is after an amazing experience of Jesus feeding over 5,000 with just five loaves of bread and two fish. I can only imagine the energy and amazement of witnessing such a miracle and being a part of it. We would be on what is called a mountain top experience, but sadly for us, our walk is not always on the mountain top.

After the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus went to pray, and He sent His disciples ahead in a boat. While in the boat, heading to the other side of the lake, a horrible storm arose; it was so bad, and they were a long way from the other side. The wind was against them, the waves were against them, and I imagine they were beginning to feel fear and frustration. Yet, during the storm, Jesus came. He didn’t need a boat. He just cruised walking through the storm, above the water and above the effects that both had on His disciples.

This is where we come to the focus of our text. We see in verses 28 and 29 a request, “Peter said to Him, 'Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” 29 And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus.” How awesome would that have been? Peter realizes it is Jesus and then has the faith to ask Him to come out to Him during this horrific storm, and Jesus permits Peter, and Peter gets out of the boat and begins to walk on what was trying to destroy him. Everything was going so well until Peter took his eyes off Jesus and placed them upon the storm that he was in. It was then that Peter focused more on the problem than on the solution, and he began to sink. There is a saying that we are either coming out of a storm, heading toward one, or in the middle of one. The question for us all is, what will we focus on? Will we focus on the storm, or the One who can conquer any storm we will ever face?