Walk On Water - The One Year At His Feet Devotional
Walk on Water
Read: Matthew 14:22-32
“You of little faith,” he said. “Why did you doubt?”
Matthew 14:31
“F.E.A.R.— False Evidence Appearing Real.”
—Anonymous
IN WORD If our ears are truly open to Jesus, we will probably hear such a rebuke daily. It is a gentle rebuke, coming from One who understands our frailties better than we understand them ourselves. But it is a firm reminder that the life we live is to be radically different from dependence on our human senses and reasoning that most of the world understands.
In this story, Peter has put Jesus to the test, in a sense. And Jesus lets him! “Come,” He says, inviting Peter to walk on the water just as Jesus does. Peter’s resulting experience mirrors ours. We hang in the balance between faith and unbelief, alternately fixing our gaze on Christ and then on the waves around us. Unfortunately, the latter frequently loom larger to us. We sometimes even obsess about this wind and these waves, which do not hesitate to tell us that we are doing the impossible—living supernatural lives. Frequently, we listen to them and we sink.
But the call of Jesus is this: “Come.” We are to live supernatural lives. We may think we are being appropriately sensible when we measure the wind and waves and proceed with caution. But Jesus urges us to ignore them altogether and fix our eyes on Him. He alone is the true measure of our situation. When He tells us to step out on the water, we can, regardless of how many contrary warnings against it we have ever heard or imagined. His is the only voice we must hear.
IN DEED The circumstances of our lives, whether unusual crises or everyday difficulties, batter our senses into believing untruths. We cower at the authority of these winds and waves—these very concrete illusions—as though their authority is real. It isn’t. We must do what is extremely difficult for us human beings to do—ignore them. We must get to the point where we hear His voice alone and become deaf to all others. Then we will know what it’s like to walk on water.
