SEE JESUS, NOT THE WIND
“But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, cried out, Lord save me! ” Matt. 14:30
One day after Jesus finished ministering to people, he asked his disciples to cross over to the other side by boat while he stayed back to dismiss the crowd. By 4am he decided to join them walking on the river. On sighting him, the disciples were terrified, saying that it was a ghost and cried out in fear. It was unusual to them seeing a human walking on water. But Jesus immediately encouraged their fearful heart: “take courage it is, and don’t be afraid”
To confirm that it was Jesus indeed, Peter demanded an invitation from him to join him walking on the water. Jesus replied: “Come”
Pete, acting on Jesus’ instruction stepped out of the boat (his comfort zone), leaving the known for the unknown, acting on God’s word. He began to walk on water towards Jesus. But when he saw the wind, fear set in and he began to sink, and cried out for help. Instantly, Jesus reached out to his hand and held him, berating him, “you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Both of them entered into the boat and the wind ceased. Glory to God! When the other disciples saw what happened, they worshipped him and confessed that truly he is the son of God.
In our journey of life as believers, we’re bound to be confronted with “contrary wind” most especially when we take God wholly at his word and try to live a life of faith which the Bible says without it, it’s impossible to please God. The reason is that the devil hates to see us please our Heavenly Father knowing the benefit that will accrue. So he will do everything he can to stop us.
Peter heard Jesus clearly calling him to come, and he obeyed and stepped out of the boat to please his master. He successfully started to walk on the water, but then he shifted his focus on Jesus and looked at the wind, and got it wrong. The Bible says that he was afraid and began to sink. As long as his gaze was on Jesus, he didn’t sink, but the moment he looked at the wind, fear caught hold of him and strangled his faith and he failed.
Beloved, fear is a faith killer. If we allow fear to replace faith in our lives, we won’t be able to do what God expects of us. If we must succeed in that which God has called us to do, or what we’ve stepped out to accomplish in life,
1. We should realize that God has not given us the Spirit of fear (2Tim. 1:7)
2. We must fix our eyes Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Heb. 12:2).
3. We must refuse to doubt when our faith is being tested. We must reject the spirit of fear – it is not of God, but of the devil.
4. We must refuse to look at the natural circumstance, and rather look at God’s word (Rom. 4:19-21).
5. We must understand that even if we seem to go down, Jesus is always there to intervene and help us when we cry out to him.
6. We must understand that God loves us too much to allow us sink while obeying him and acting on his word (Her. 13:5, 1Cor. 1:9).
Revd. A. U. Akpan is the President of FAITH ACTIVATION GLOBAL MINISTRIES, Lagos, Nigeria.
Faith Activation Global Ministries is in divine partnership with The ministry of the word led by Dr Ben Bassey.