Matthew 14:22-33
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
So what did Peter fail to do? He started out OK… He started out trusting in Jesus. But then what happened? Did he take his eyes off Jesus? Was he looking at the wild and crazy storm and big waves and blowing winds? What happens when you take your eyes, your heart, or your thoughts off Jesus and you get distracted by the storms. You start to get upset by what is happening around you. You get upset by what people are saying about you. We get upset when people are mean and ugly. And then what happens to us? Yes, we begin to get upset, maybe we begin to cry…because we are looking at the troubles that surround us.
So how do we get back to feeling better? What did Peter do? Yes, Peter, immediately focused back on Jesus…He trusted Jesus. That is what Jesus is asking us to do. No matter what is happening to us, Jesus asks us to simply trust in Him. And in our prayers every day we can ask God to help us to do a better job of trusting in Jesus, and not let the “storms of life” take us down into the deep swirling oceans.
Here is one of my favorite songs/hymns for us to think about. I’ve also included a YouTube link so you can sing along with your parents.
