Living His Word

Matthew 14:31 ERV: Then Jesus caught Peter with his hand. He said, “Your faith is small. Why did you doubt?”

The story of Jesus and Peter walking on water is a story that speaks to the life of every disciple of Jesus Christ. Although few disciples, if any, will ever again be called to walk on water like Peter, they will be called to do all sorts of other things in service to Jesus that will seem difficult, if not impossible.

Just as Peter was called to get out of the boat and come to Jesus, so every disciple of Jesus Christ is called to leave where they have been and go where He is. Jesus is the Great Shepherd and we are His sheep. Our purpose in life is to stop going in the direction we used to go in and come to Him and follow Him. He calls each one of us to the purpose in life He has for us. Just like Peter, then, we must step out of the comfort of the boat of our own making and start to walk on the water where Jesus is walking. We may not be able to see how it is possible, we may only be able to see the difficulties and problems, but we must step out anyway. We must step out in faith that Jesus knows what He is asking of us and that it can be done. The life of a follower of Jesus is a life of faith in Him.

If we step out in faith and follow Jesus, then we must not doubt. There will always be reasons to doubt, there will always be wind and waves, because the world we live in is a world full of trials, troubles, and tribulations. In this dispensation, no one gets a free pass. Nevertheless, we must step out in faith and not doubt the call of Jesus.

Just like Peter, however, every disciple will have times when the troubles of the calling will test our faith and cause us to doubt. When that happens and we start to sink, we must call out to Jesus for His help. Jesus is always there ready to lift us up. He will never leave us nor forsake us.

After all, it was Jesus Himself who said, “You can be sure that I will be with you always. I will continue with you until the end of time” (Matthew 28:20).