Hammer on Anvil '

Many of you are familiar with the story of Peter walking on the water to Jesus in Matthew 14. After a grueling day of ministry, Jesus sends the disciples out in a boat to go across the water while He goes up on the mountain to pray. He had been thronged by crowds all day long and was exhausted. He needed to be with His Father to be recharged and refreshed.

The Bible says that "in the fourth watch of the night," Jesus came to the boat, "walking on the sea." At first the disciples were terrified, thinking it was a ghost. When Jesus told them it was Him, Peter said, "If it's really You, command me to come to You on the water." Jesus grants permission, so Peter steps out onto the water and begins to walk toward Jesus.

Peter did great walking on the water -- until he took his eyes off Jesus. Verse 30 says, "But when he saw the wind, he was afraid." He began to sink, and cried out to Jesus to save him. As Jesus reaches out to save Peter, the stern admonition comes: "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"

Recently my husband and I were with friends from a town about three hours away. We were enjoying lunch at a nice restaurant after church, when our conversation turned to the weather. It had been a bit stormy, and we were under a tornado watch -- not an uncommon thing for where we live. But our friend began to get more and more agitated as she thought about their return trip home. "What if a tornado touches down next to our car? What if our car is lifted into the air and crashes to the pavement?" She went on and on, and if I didn't know better, I would've sworn she didn't know Jesus.

At one point I stopped her, looked her in the eye, and said, "The worst thing that could possibly happen to you would mean you would be in the presence of Jesus! What could be better than that?" She looked at me as if I had two heads, and then sputtered something about, "Well, I can't do that to my family!" I assured her that if God took her, He would see to it that her family is cared for.

Friends, if we can't even endure a small weather disturbance without fearing for our lives, our faith is small indeed. Second Corinthians 5:7 says we are to walk by faith, and not by sight. Peter walked by faith when he kept his focus on Jesus. But then he looked down and observed the churning waves, and immediately began to sink. He had stopped walking by faith, and let his sight dictate his emotions.

God has made us hundreds of promises in His Word. Are we going to believe those promises, or believe what we can only observe with our eyes?

The day after this incident with our friends, my daily Oswald Chambers reading hit the nail on the head. In talking about being abandoned entirely to God, he says this:

The test of abandonment is in refusing to say – "Well, what about this?" Beware of suppositions. Immediately you allow – What about this? – it means you have not abandoned, you do not really trust God. Immediately you do abandon, you think no more about what God is going to do. Abandon means to refuse yourself the luxury of asking any questions. 

This may sound harsh, but it really makes sense in the life of faith. If we are perpetually saying, "But what about...?", we do not trust God at all. And since we don't really believe He has things in hand, we keep trying to figure out how our life circumstances are going to play out.

Paul instructs us to not be anxious about anything (Philippians 4:6). Over and over again, God promises that He will see to it that our needs are met. Yet I can't tell you how many Christians I have known over the years who say things like, "I'm just a worrier." And some of them wear that badge proudly, as if somebody has to worry, and they've taken up the cause!

Friends, worry is not merely wrong -- it is a SIN against our heavenly Father. It means we don't truly believe He can look after us as He has promised to do. If you only have "faith" when you can see the end result of all your circumstances, that is not faith at all. You are trusting in your own common sense.

Matthew 13:22 says the "cares of this world" are what chokes out God's Word. Let's stop focusing on our circumstances, and fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).