Even the winds and the waves obey Him!

 

 

Matthew 14:28-31,

Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
 “Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

Are we willing to step out into the places we cannot sustain on our own?   Are we willing to come out to Him when we know that without God we will fail?

In the song, “Dear younger me,” they are speaking to their younger self.  If I could tell my younger self one thing, it would be, “get in when God calls no matter how crazy it seems.” 

Mother Teresa came when Jesus called her out on the water.  She never hesitated when she could do something to help someone.    In situations she could not sustain on her own, she stepped into them and trusted Jesus. 

She wrote, “We are able to go through the most terrible places fearlessly, because Jesus in us will never deceive us; Jesus in us is our love, our strength, our joy and our compassion.” [1]

What I have found is the places that Jesus calls me into that I cannot sustain on my own are the places of richest life.   They grow me in ways I never could grow otherwise and fill my life with the richest abundance.  Sometimes I frail around for awhile but then Jesus steps in and pulls me up.

Sometimes I have this expectation that when he says “Come” that it is a guarantee that all will go perfectly and I will experience no failures.   I put all the responsibility onto God for sustaining me on the water and am angry when I start frantically flailing around.    In these verses, Jesus puts the responsibility on to Peter.  He asks Peter, “why did you doubt?”

Often it is our lack of faith the causes us the most difficult.  We forget that God is good to us all the time and we get caught in worry and fear.  Our energy goes into thinking about what might happen which is not good and it causes stress in our lives.  Even though we have seen Jesus walk on water towards us, we doubt His goodness to us in the moment.  We see all the winds and waves around us. 

Philippians 4:8-9 says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think on these things.   Whatever you have learned and received and heard from me, and seen in me, put these things into practice.  And the God of peace will be with you…”

We are secure in Him.   Even when we frantically frail around and believe we are sinking, He has hold of us and will not let the waters sweep over us.  As my smallest boy often repeats, “even the winds and the waves obey Him!”

In Isaiah 43:2, the Lord says, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”

What blows me away is how much our situations are not without hope.

Mark 4:26-34 Jesus said to the crowds:
"This is how it is with the Kingdom of God;
it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land
and would sleep and rise night and day
and the seed would sprout and grow,
he knows not how.
Of its own accord the land yields fruit,
first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once,
for the harvest has come."

The other thing I would tell my younger self is when you step out to help someone and scatter a little seed, things sprout up and grow like crazy.  While you cannot anticipate things to be perfect, you can eagerly hope and anticipate God bringing life to situations you touch.   Incredible and wondrous things begin to pop up everywhere unexpectedly.   It’s not like you set out with this perfect end in mind and work towards it, it is more like you plant an itsy bitsy seed and suddenly things rise up that can only be God.   I find such incredible joy in the things that sprout so unexpectedly and unexplainably. 

My life isn’t what I planned at my age.  If someone would have told me years ago what my life would be like today, like Sarah, I couldn’t help but laugh.  Yet, God’s ways and His life are so much unexplainably better than I could have hoped, imagined, or dreamed.

Lord, I felt on my heart to write this weeks ago and didn’t. Then I held onto it.   Forgive me.   Help us to live our lives in a way that most glorify and honor you.