22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. 25 And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
34 And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized him, they sent around to all that region and brought to him all who were sick 36 and implored him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.
(ESV)
STOP! Think a little 🤔 What is God saying to you?
- What is the writer saying?
- How do I apply this to my life?
Jesus dismissed the crowds He had just fed and sent His disciples back over the sea. He then went up onto the mountain by Himself to pray. Jesus knew the importance of spending time alone in prayer with His Father. He had withdrawn to be by Himself but had been interrupted by the crowd. While He had compassion on them and served them, He still made the time to be alone with God. Sometimes life gets in the way of our time with God—usually for things far less noble than caring for others. We must make sure we don’t let life completely crowd out our time with God. Is your time with God important enough that you make the time necessary each day?
The disciples find themselves in a bit of a storm pushing against the wind and beaten by the waves. Between about 3 and 6 am, Jesus comes to them walking on the water. When they see Him they are terrified and think they are seeing a ghost. But Jesus eases their fear and lets them know it is Him. Peter seems to have a burst of faith and asks to join Jesus on the water. Jesus calls him to join Him. He gets out of the boat and walks to Jesus on the water. But it doesn’t take long before his focus shifts to the wind and the waves and he becomes afraid. Doubt starts to set in and he begins to sink. He calls out to Jesus to save him. Jesus reaches out His hand, takes Peter and asks why he doubted. When they got into the boat, the wind stopped and the disciples realised that Jesus was the Son of God and worshipped Him. Just like with feeding the crowds, Jesus invites us to do the impossible with Him. But when our focus shifts to the cares and concerns of this world instead of staying fixed on Jesus, then our faith will fail. Where is your focus? Are you focusing on Jesus, the One who makes all things possible? Or are you focusing on your situation and battling to figure out how you are going to get through it all?
When Jesus arrives back on land, the people recognise Him and bring their sick, wanting at least the chance to touch the edge of His clothes. The crowd has probably heard of the woman who was healed from touching his clothes (Mat 9:20-21). Unlike the disciples, the crowd hasn’t come to the deeper realisation of who Jesus is.
So often we are like Peter and look at the things going on around us and take our eyes off of Jesus, we then find ourselves sinking. We can see in this story exactly what happens in lives when we stop trusting in Jesus and leaning on Him in everything we do, we too sink.
That we should not be afraid of what we don’t know because we can leave everything in God’s hands in his care.