COME!
In
St. Matthew 14 we find an account of Jesus constraining His disciples to get
into a ship to go to the other side of the
This
has always reminded me of the highs and lows that we go through as
Christians. One moment we may be blessed
and feeling strong in the Lord, and the next moment be frightened by
circumstances that we don’t seem to have any control over. The “mountains” and “valleys” of life are
something that we all experience; but through them all, Christ wants to teach
us that He is the Master of all things.
When
it began to grow late, Jesus came to them walking on the sea. At first, they were frightened at the sight
of Him because they thought He was a ghost.
After all, they had never seen nor heard of a person walking on water
and naturally thought that only a spirit could accomplish such a thing. Jesus knew they were troubled and said to
them, “Be of good cheer; it is I; be not
afraid.” It is comforting to know
that the Lord is with us during the storms of life, but we need to understand
that He often allows them for our instruction!
He constrained these men into
the ship to begin with, knowing that there was a lesson in the storm that they
were going to encounter.
Life’s
trials help to mold and shape us into the persons that God wants us to
become. We don’t usually see them coming
nor expect them when they happen; but looking backward, we can usually see the
hand of the Father in what we’ve gone through.
Surely, not every trial is from God; but we do know that everything
works together for good to
those who love Him.
Peter
was the only one of the disciples who said to the Lord, “If it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water.” What was he thinking! Fact is, I don’t think he was. His sole motivation was to be with Jesus –
the “walk on the water” was just something that stood between him and his Lord. That’s where I want to be in my spiritual
journey: to consider miracles as simply a by-product of walking with my
Lord. Peter’s faith was focused squarely
on Jesus, and he didn’t consider the storm or the miracle in his desire to get
to Him. Jesus’ response was to say
simply, “Come.” He always offers us this simple
invitation when He recognizes that our desire is toward Him.
Peter
was quick to jump out of the boat and walk toward Jesus. It was no big deal – until his eyes were
distracted from Jesus and onto the waves that were rolling all around him. At this point, he began to sink into the
water. Being frightened for his life,
Peter cried out and said, “Lord, save
me.” I’ve certainly been there before. God blesses me in some astonishing way, and
then I see the storm that He’s bringing me through and get scared. When I begin to sink, I call out to the Lord,
and He always reaches out His hand and encourages me yet again.
When
we focus on either extreme in our lives - the severity of the storm, or the
impossibility of the miracle that it will take to overcome it – we lose sight
of the Lord Himself. Jesus must be our
focus always. At another time, when His
disciples came to Him rejoicing in the miracles that they had done in His name,
Jesus told them, instead, to rejoice that their names were written in heaven. When we aim to honor Him alone, and all we
want is to be where He is, He will extend the invitation to us to “Come.”
Then we will find that anything is possible to them who believe. Too many Christians spend their whole lives
content to cower in the ship. Let us,
however, be led by our love and devotion for our Lord and Savior to leave the
ship and go out to where He is. Neither
wind nor waves will be able to deter us – they will be merely the tool that
helps to refine us. We will then find
that miracles are possible when our eyes our fixed on Him alone!
"And when they were come into the
ship, the wind ceased. Then they that
were in the ship came and worshipped Him, saying, Of a truth Thou art the Son
of God." (Matthew
14:32, 33).
Comments
Post a Comment