Love Lifted Me

In our walk of faith with our Lord the rocks are there to support us, but God’s purpose for us is not to protect us from all turmoil and pain, but to teach us to be calm and confident through those turmoil, pain, and storms because we know that He is with us.

We often see getting through the storm as the goal, but sometimes the storm itself is the goal. We are not being taught by God how to walk in faith in the future, but rather how to walk in faith right here, right now.

2. Peter understood this. He was the only one who understood this, which leads to our second point, Peter may have had a little faith, but he did not have no faith.

Peter was in the boat with 11 other men, all called personally by Jesus, all had been witness to His miracles and heard first hand His teaching, yet only Peter stood up and said, “Lord, if it be thou bid me come unto thee on the water.”

The other 11 were too busy dealing with the problem at hand, which was the storm. These men were all used to being on boats, and they had all seen their fare share of storms, but this storm was like no other. The Greek of verse 24 uses a word that means “to torture”. The boat was tortured by the waves. Being tortured, the disciples were focused on what was torturing them, which was the storm, not paying attention to the fact that the one who created the water in the first place, could also calm it.

I would like to think that if I was on that boat I would have showed the faith of Peter in that instance, but I likely would have been one of the other 11 saying, “Here Jesus, sit here by me, get in the boat right here”, and I would scoot over and make a place for Him. But Peter had the faith that stormy night.

One day a woman went to her preacher and said, “Pastor, my husband keeps telling me if I keep coming to your church he’s going to kill me.” The pastor told her, “Yes, I know. Keep praying that the Lord will watch over you and keep you safe. You must have faith, child.” (This lady had been coming to the pastor weekly with the same complaint regarding her husband for over a year.) “I know I need to have faith,” the lady continued, “but now he says if I keep coming to your church he’s going to kill you.” The preacher responded, “Well, there’s this nice little Methodist church down town………”

That preacher didn’t get the faith we are talking about here tonight, but Peter did, at least initially.

Psalm 69:1-3 is a petition by David to the Lord. “Save me, O God, for the waters have come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing, I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary of crying, my throat is dried, mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.”

Even David, the man called by God to lead the nation, had times when he felt alone and desolate. But in these times of turmoil, he was constantly seeking God out to come to him. In the storms and turmoil it is all the more necessary to cling to the words of James 4:8, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”