Get out of your boat

"And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain to pray.  Now, when evening came, He was alone there.  But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.  Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.  And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying it is a ghost!  And they cried out for fear.  But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Be of good cheer!  It is I; do not be afraid.  And Peter answered Him and said, Lord if it is you command me to come to You on the water.  So He said Come.  And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.  But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out saying, Lord save me!  And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt?  And when they got into the boat the wind ceased.  Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, Truly You are the Son of Man."

Jesus walking on the water is one story in the Bible almost everyone knows.  It is such a great miracle of faith.  But, besides walking on water there are other important messages of faith we should notice within this story.  First, and probably most important, Jesus sends the multitudes away to pray.  Even in His busy schedule of saving the world He made it His priority to pray and spend time with God.  This is something that is so important to me and yet sometimes gets overlooked in my busy day.  I need to remember that even Jesus made time for what was most important.  Then, you see the disciples not recognizing Jesus.  I thought this was weird because they had spent so much time with Jesus.  But, many times when I am in my own storm I do not recognize Jesus.  Afterwards, I see He was right in front of me the whole time.  But it is always so easy to see Him when we are looking back.  I need to trust what is right in front of me more often.  Peter doesn't start to sink until he starts to look at the wind and waves around him.  This happens to all of us when we take our eyes off Jesus.  We start to focus on the difficult circumstances around us and our problems begin to sink us.  This happens every time.  If we can keep our eyes on Jesus and trust and know that He will carry us through the storm we won't even think about what is under us.  We will be able to overcome any obstacle and do things people never thought we could do.  Jesus takes us by the hand and gets us through any circumstance.  Peter's faith falters just as every one of us in this world has done at one time or another but it doesn't end in failure.  Jesus doesn't falter.  He is still there for us immediately when we cry out.  It's amazing how strong His love is!  I need to remember to be strong and step out of my boat even if it seems impossible and there are scary things around me.  I need to remember who is holding my hand the whole way even if I can't see Him.  I can do amazing things with God on my side.  I can step out of my boat I am comfortable in and risk everything knowing I will meet Jesus on the water.  At the end Jesus gets in the boat and the wind ceases.  When we bring Jesus in our lives all chaos stops and He takes over.  I love this story all over again.  Jesus is so amazing!!