Like Peter when we Choose to Step out of the Boat we will Run into Rough Waters—R Fritz
What I am talking about is where the disciples boarded a ship to cross the Sea of Galilee. Matthew 14:22-32 explains what happened aboard the ship. The disciples were tossed around with waves and were afraid. They saw what they thought was a spirit but it turned out to be Jesus, walking on the water. Peter started to walk on the water as he stepped out of the boat and lost his attention on Jesus and sank into the water thinking he was going to drown. Jesus pulled Peter up out of the water. Matthew 14:31 talks about what Jesus said to Peter, And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” The water got rough fear showed up and Peter began to sink and lost his faith.
This is similar to what we do in this world when the rough waters come in our life and we are to believe in Jesus but choose our understanding and our wisdom when we should be totally focused on Jesus. We forget who our savior is, the one that can save us from any situation and all we have to do is ask. We have to get to a point where when issues occur, we automatically are asking Jesus to help change the situation we are in. We have to put that in our thought process or we will not go where we want to go it will revert us back to what we have always done. When we are not focused on Jesus, we are focused on life which takes us away from what we should be focused on. Our answer is in the spirit and we are looking at earthly things. That is why we should be focused on Jesus. Proverbs 2:1-7 says “My son, if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.”
We should be looking to God and fighting in the spirit. That is where our battles are won. We have for years taken the fight in the flesh and lost a lot of battles. The major battles such as health issues are where the Holy Spirit has to get involved. We need to pray for our recovery and fight the spiritual battle involved because our health issues could be a spiritual fight. We should be looking at every
situation where praying will change the outcome. We do not know the power we can have if we would pray for our situation as well as anybody else we know that is fighting a battle. We change the spirit of people around us by speaking with them about what is going on in their life. We should give them our experiences and what the Holy Spirit gives us as we are talking with them. This is doing God’s work.
Stepping out of the boat is the ability to deal with whatever is thrown at us. That does not mean we are efficient with everything thrown at us, it means we can deal with it and let the Holy Spirit help us deal with what we need help with. What I have been trying to show is we cannot do it ourselves which is why the Holy Spirit needs to be involved, our wisdom is not good enough. The Holy Spirit knows about what is changing as it is changing in everybody’s life. The rough waters are the result of us stepping out of the boat. It is our decision for us to obey God. Our life is an up-and-down adventure through mountains and valleys. It is the amount of time we spend in the mountains or in the valleys that we can change with the Holy Spirit. We are going to be tried, and have to keep giving our best shot.
Last week just before I finished my blog, I had a dream and woke up falling into the water just like Peter. What was different was I did not know I was on the water until I woke up falling in. The water was hidden. It is like our life where we do not see when something happens, we see the results of what has happened. We are still happy because we know God has his hands on our life. We see things falling around us but we keep believing in God. When we see something trying to stop us, we pivot to what God needs us to do. Not everybody has that ability, just those taught by the Holy Spirit. Fear will not change what God starts.
Faith is according to Hebrews 11:1 which says “Now faith is the substance (realization) of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith comes when we have hope for something we cannot see, with no hope we will not have faith. Faith comes with us knowing something about God. It is “belief” that puts us into action. Belief is the force that puts our faith into action. When we believe in something we are not going to wait and see what is going to happen. To wait and see is not a belief in God or anything else. When we wait and see we are waiting on ourselves or somebody else to change our outcome, not God. God needs faith even as small as a mustard seed to start an action.
We need faith in God for us to do the unforeseen things that pop up when the rough waters show up. Next, we need to step out of the boat, that is when our belief kicks in with the Holy Spirit. We know we can do it then. It is now time to get it done without thinking. God Bless.
