Stepping Out Of The Boat
"And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt" - Matthew 14:31 A priest, an evangelist, and a minister were in a row boat in the middle of a pond fishing.
None of them had caught anything all morning.
Then the evangelist stands up and says he needs to go to the bathroom so he climbs out of the boat and walks on the water to shore.
He comes back ten minutes later the same way.
Then the minister decides he needs to go to the bathroom, too, so he climbs out of the boat and walks on the water to shore.
He, too, comes back the same way ten minutes later.
The priest looks at both of them and decides that his faith is just as strong as his fishing buddies and that he can walk on water, too.
He stands up and excuses himself.
As he steps out, he makes a big splash down into the water.
The evangelist looks at the minister and says, "I suppose we should have told him where the rocks were.
" Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God, unlike the joke we should not try and walk on water but have faith that God will make a way.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen, the not seen part is what so many have trouble with.
Faith is never easy, but the more convinced we are of the reality of an all-good, all-powerful God, the more our trust will grow, and the less we will be overwhelmed by doubt.
What does it mean to have true faith? The words of Jesus tells us that if we have the faith of a mustard seed we can say to the mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible (Matt.
17:20).
As humans we struggle with our faith on a daily bases.
Holding on to faith in our time of trouble can be an extremely difficult thing to do.
When problems in everyday life become over-whelming we start to lean more towards worldly answers for our current circumstance and not towards God.
Having faith is trusting that God can and will be there for you in your time of need, that He is and is always in charge of your circumstances even when you can not feel His presence, Faith is believing without seeing.
We have all had times in our lives when we have been a "doubting Thomas," we obtain this phrase from John 20:25 "unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.
" Thomas had to have physical proof that Jesus had risen from the dead and appeared to the other disciples.
Because God moves on His time and not on our time, we have become like Thomas and doubt if He will give us an answer to our troubles.
What we fail to understand is that God is never late, He will always answer those who trust and believe in Him, unlike Thomas we can not touch the print of the nails so we must have faith in that in which you can not see.
Jesus said "Blessed are you who have not seen and yet have believed.
" We not only believe in Christ Jesus, but we believe in His promise.
When I think about the power of faith one of the first things that come to mind is Peter and his faith to walk on water.
Scripture say that Jesus came to the disciples walking on the water and when they first saw Him they became afraid, but Jesus said to them "It is I; do not be afraid.
" Peter was the first to speak out and said "Lord, If it is You, command me to come to you on the water.
" We really do not think much about the boldness of Peter asking Jesus to let him walk on the water just as He was doing, Our request seem small compared to Peters, but yet we still act as if we are troubling God by asking.
When asking something of God we some time act as if we are asking to much, like God has a limit that He can do or spend.
When you start to think that your request is to bold, think of Peter and what he ask of the Lord, Peter ask with boldness, but he stepped out of the boat in faith.
Stepping out of the boat Peter started walking towards Jesus on the water, when the wind and the waves became a little rough, Peter became afraid, he then started to sink into the water and began crying out to Jesus for help.
Jesus then reached out, took his hand, and lifted Peter to safety.
The thing that we as believers must remember is that Jesus is there for us, Just as He reached out and pulled Peter to safety, He is there to do the same for you.
As followers of Christ Jesus we know that having faith is important because without faith it is impossible to please God.
But much like Peter we tend to take our eyes off the One who can calm the waves when the storms of life blows our way, when the house payment is late, the electric is over due, when you have more month than you have money, the kids, your relationship, all of this and more can cause us to loose focus of the One who will reach out His hand and lift us to safety.
We walk by faith and not by sight and when doing so you must keep your focus on our true strength, Jesus Christ.
Satan's job is getting us off our path of faith by placing distraction in our lives so that we start to stray and loose focus, he will make you think that God does not hear you, or that you have done to much wrong in your life for God to answer you.
The devil is a liar and will never tell you the truth concerning what God has for you.
Scripture tells of a lady that suffered from a flow of blood for twelve years, she had spent her life savings on doctors but she still was not cured.
It also tells us that she had only heard of Jesus and what He had done, by faith believing in what she had not seen she had faith that all she needed was to touch His garment and she would be healed.
After making her way to Jesus she came up behind him, touched His garment, and immediately the flow of blood was dried up.
Notice that her faith along healed that in which she suffered from, Jesus never had to speak a word, no-one had to lay hands on her, no prayer groups were formed, no prayer cloth was needed, all that was required was her believing that what she was asking, would be done.
Jesus said in Matthew 21:22 that what ever things we ask in prayer, believing, you will receive, she believed that her healing was only a touch away and believing she received.
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance.
And he went out not knowing where he was going.
By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she believed the promise of God.
By faith Moses and his people passed through the Red Sea by dry land, where as the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned.
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days.
By faith the lame walk, the blind could see, the death could hear, and the dead was alive once more.
When my dad was first diagnosed with cancer he was already in the hospital for a heart condition and other problems, his doctor called us outside the room and informed us that he had what he believed was cancer of the lungs.
"Your father is a very sick man" he told us, then he went on to say that dad would not be leaving the hospital.
We told the doctor about our faith that God would heal dad, "I'm telling you the way it is, he said, and you can believe what ever you want.
" Later the doctor went into the room and gave dad the news.
After hearing the doctor out dad responded "You might have some say so, but the man above has the last word and I'm going home, and I will be working my garden this weekend.
" Dad was not a church going man, the truth is he never cared for preachers, but it seemed that God was working on him.
To make a long story short dad started getting better, each day after they would remove a tube running IV's into him, a few days later the same doctor who said dad would not go home came by the room, "your not coming in?" ask dad, "I don't know what's going on Mr.
Miller but you are getting better and you are going home tomorrow," dad smiled at him and said "I know, and I told you that I would be home in my garden this weekend.
" Dad was working in his garden that weekend, he was there because he believed in what he asked God for.
He wasn't a church going person but he had that faith of a mustard seed, and with that God moved in his life.
If my dad, someone who stayed away from the church, could speak a blessing upon his life and walk out of a hospital when the doctors had given up, what can you do? If you simply have the faith of a mustard seed, you can say to the mountain in your life to move from here to there and it will move, Jesus never said you had to be perfect, He never said you would need help from someone else, He said you only needed faith.
So today start speaking a blessing upon your life and believe that you will receive.
As a young boy I can recall my uncle who plowed his garden using two mules and not a tractor.
Each mule would have on what was called blinders, the blinders kept the mules focused on what was in front of them and not distractions coming from the side that might cause them to waver of course.
In our daily walk we should always wear our blinders to avoid distractions that might take our focus off the Lord.
We must learn to keep our eyes on the one who will take our hand and carry us through the storms of life.
We must in faith claim victory.
None of them had caught anything all morning.
Then the evangelist stands up and says he needs to go to the bathroom so he climbs out of the boat and walks on the water to shore.
He comes back ten minutes later the same way.
Then the minister decides he needs to go to the bathroom, too, so he climbs out of the boat and walks on the water to shore.
He, too, comes back the same way ten minutes later.
The priest looks at both of them and decides that his faith is just as strong as his fishing buddies and that he can walk on water, too.
He stands up and excuses himself.
As he steps out, he makes a big splash down into the water.
The evangelist looks at the minister and says, "I suppose we should have told him where the rocks were.
" Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God, unlike the joke we should not try and walk on water but have faith that God will make a way.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen, the not seen part is what so many have trouble with.
Faith is never easy, but the more convinced we are of the reality of an all-good, all-powerful God, the more our trust will grow, and the less we will be overwhelmed by doubt.
What does it mean to have true faith? The words of Jesus tells us that if we have the faith of a mustard seed we can say to the mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible (Matt.
17:20).
As humans we struggle with our faith on a daily bases.
Holding on to faith in our time of trouble can be an extremely difficult thing to do.
When problems in everyday life become over-whelming we start to lean more towards worldly answers for our current circumstance and not towards God.
Having faith is trusting that God can and will be there for you in your time of need, that He is and is always in charge of your circumstances even when you can not feel His presence, Faith is believing without seeing.
We have all had times in our lives when we have been a "doubting Thomas," we obtain this phrase from John 20:25 "unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.
" Thomas had to have physical proof that Jesus had risen from the dead and appeared to the other disciples.
Because God moves on His time and not on our time, we have become like Thomas and doubt if He will give us an answer to our troubles.
What we fail to understand is that God is never late, He will always answer those who trust and believe in Him, unlike Thomas we can not touch the print of the nails so we must have faith in that in which you can not see.
Jesus said "Blessed are you who have not seen and yet have believed.
" We not only believe in Christ Jesus, but we believe in His promise.
When I think about the power of faith one of the first things that come to mind is Peter and his faith to walk on water.
Scripture say that Jesus came to the disciples walking on the water and when they first saw Him they became afraid, but Jesus said to them "It is I; do not be afraid.
" Peter was the first to speak out and said "Lord, If it is You, command me to come to you on the water.
" We really do not think much about the boldness of Peter asking Jesus to let him walk on the water just as He was doing, Our request seem small compared to Peters, but yet we still act as if we are troubling God by asking.
When asking something of God we some time act as if we are asking to much, like God has a limit that He can do or spend.
When you start to think that your request is to bold, think of Peter and what he ask of the Lord, Peter ask with boldness, but he stepped out of the boat in faith.
Stepping out of the boat Peter started walking towards Jesus on the water, when the wind and the waves became a little rough, Peter became afraid, he then started to sink into the water and began crying out to Jesus for help.
Jesus then reached out, took his hand, and lifted Peter to safety.
The thing that we as believers must remember is that Jesus is there for us, Just as He reached out and pulled Peter to safety, He is there to do the same for you.
As followers of Christ Jesus we know that having faith is important because without faith it is impossible to please God.
But much like Peter we tend to take our eyes off the One who can calm the waves when the storms of life blows our way, when the house payment is late, the electric is over due, when you have more month than you have money, the kids, your relationship, all of this and more can cause us to loose focus of the One who will reach out His hand and lift us to safety.
We walk by faith and not by sight and when doing so you must keep your focus on our true strength, Jesus Christ.
Satan's job is getting us off our path of faith by placing distraction in our lives so that we start to stray and loose focus, he will make you think that God does not hear you, or that you have done to much wrong in your life for God to answer you.
The devil is a liar and will never tell you the truth concerning what God has for you.
Scripture tells of a lady that suffered from a flow of blood for twelve years, she had spent her life savings on doctors but she still was not cured.
It also tells us that she had only heard of Jesus and what He had done, by faith believing in what she had not seen she had faith that all she needed was to touch His garment and she would be healed.
After making her way to Jesus she came up behind him, touched His garment, and immediately the flow of blood was dried up.
Notice that her faith along healed that in which she suffered from, Jesus never had to speak a word, no-one had to lay hands on her, no prayer groups were formed, no prayer cloth was needed, all that was required was her believing that what she was asking, would be done.
Jesus said in Matthew 21:22 that what ever things we ask in prayer, believing, you will receive, she believed that her healing was only a touch away and believing she received.
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance.
And he went out not knowing where he was going.
By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she believed the promise of God.
By faith Moses and his people passed through the Red Sea by dry land, where as the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned.
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days.
By faith the lame walk, the blind could see, the death could hear, and the dead was alive once more.
When my dad was first diagnosed with cancer he was already in the hospital for a heart condition and other problems, his doctor called us outside the room and informed us that he had what he believed was cancer of the lungs.
"Your father is a very sick man" he told us, then he went on to say that dad would not be leaving the hospital.
We told the doctor about our faith that God would heal dad, "I'm telling you the way it is, he said, and you can believe what ever you want.
" Later the doctor went into the room and gave dad the news.
After hearing the doctor out dad responded "You might have some say so, but the man above has the last word and I'm going home, and I will be working my garden this weekend.
" Dad was not a church going man, the truth is he never cared for preachers, but it seemed that God was working on him.
To make a long story short dad started getting better, each day after they would remove a tube running IV's into him, a few days later the same doctor who said dad would not go home came by the room, "your not coming in?" ask dad, "I don't know what's going on Mr.
Miller but you are getting better and you are going home tomorrow," dad smiled at him and said "I know, and I told you that I would be home in my garden this weekend.
" Dad was working in his garden that weekend, he was there because he believed in what he asked God for.
He wasn't a church going person but he had that faith of a mustard seed, and with that God moved in his life.
If my dad, someone who stayed away from the church, could speak a blessing upon his life and walk out of a hospital when the doctors had given up, what can you do? If you simply have the faith of a mustard seed, you can say to the mountain in your life to move from here to there and it will move, Jesus never said you had to be perfect, He never said you would need help from someone else, He said you only needed faith.
So today start speaking a blessing upon your life and believe that you will receive.
As a young boy I can recall my uncle who plowed his garden using two mules and not a tractor.
Each mule would have on what was called blinders, the blinders kept the mules focused on what was in front of them and not distractions coming from the side that might cause them to waver of course.
In our daily walk we should always wear our blinders to avoid distractions that might take our focus off the Lord.
We must learn to keep our eyes on the one who will take our hand and carry us through the storms of life.
We must in faith claim victory.
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