Walking on Water

In Matthew's (Matthew 14) account of Jesus walking on the water, Peter calls out to Jesus and the verses follow:

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."

I was talking with a friend and the thought came to me... Why a storm? Why not calm waters? If Peter was going to start walking on water, step one to me would be calm water. So why a storm? But the reason that came to me made perfect sense. In one illustration without saying much more than an invitation, Jesus shows us how to keep our heads above water and also what makes us sink. Peter in faith actually got out of a boat. It seems simple enough, but how many of us decide to take a swim out of a boat when it is storming? It's harder than we think. Not only does Peter get out, but he also walks on water! Then as the wind and waves creep in, he doubts and sinks.

We have this huge illustration of what it means to walk through storms in our lives. The first thing we must do is get out of the boat and walk. The other thing we have to do is walk in faith, keeping our eyes on Jesus. If we let the winds and worries creep in, we can easily sink, but Jesus will pull us back up if we cry out to Him. My friend heard this song the next day after our discussion of Peter walking on stormy waters and the words seemed to be confirmation. Here are the first verse and chorus of Casting Crown's song "Voice of Truth"

Oh,what I would do to have
the kind of faith it takes
To climb out of this boat I'm in
Onto the crashing waves
To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown
Where Jesus is, And he's holding out his hand

But the waves are calling out my name and they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me time and time again
"Boy, you'll never win, you'll never win."

But the voice of truth tells me a different story
the voice of truth says "do not be afraid!"
and the voice of truth says "
this is for my glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

You would think God was listening to our conversation or something...