Theme: Peter’s Walk
This week we see how to turn failing faith to robust faith.
SCRIPTURE
Matthew 14:28-31
And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
LESSON
The Jews were not seafaring people. So there are not many stories in the Bible about their being in peril on the sea. But I think of one! It is the story of Jonah, who tried to run away from the Lord by taking a ship from Joppa to sail to Tarshish on the far side of the Mediterranean. He was not acting in faith, as Peter was. He was defiantly disobedient. But when God sent the great storm that threatened to sink the ship in which he was sailing and when the sailors finally threw him overboard to drown, which he had told them to do, it was when he was sinking down to bottom of the sea forever and was swallowed by the great fish that Jonah turned to God again in prayer and found salvation. Jonah wrote,
In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.
From the depths of the grave I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.
You hurled me into the deep,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me,
all your waves and breakers
swept over me…
When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.
(Jonah 2:2, 3, 7)
God heard Jonah from inside the great fish and saved him, just as Jesus saved Peter when he too was sinking in the waves. It often takes such things to turn us from disobedience to obedience and grow our failing faith into robust faith in the Savior.
Asaph, one of the great psalm writers, was almost thrown off balance by the apparent easy life of the wicked. He knew God had been good to Israel. “But as for me,” he explains in Psalm 73,
…my feet had almost slipped,
I had nearly lost my foothold.
For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
They have no struggles,
their bodies are healthy and strong.
They are free from the burdens common to man,
they are not plagued by human ills.
(vv. 2-5)
He goes on like that for several stanzas until he explains how his faltering faith was at last restored. It was when he “entered the sanctuary of God.” Then he “understood their final destiny” (v. 17). The rest of the psalm says that God held him by his right hand, just as Jesus must have reached out to save Peter. He ends by claiming that from that time on he made the sovereign God his refuge (v. 28).
If you have been sinking in life because of troubles or by doubting the wisdom and power of God, stop looking at the waves and look to Jesus. He is the Lord of all circumstances and he will be there to see you through them.
STUDY QUESTIONS
What other story of trouble at sea does Dr. Boice mention?
What can be learned about faith from this story?
Why did Asaph doubt?
What restored his faith?
REFLECTION
Reflect on what has turned you from disobedience in obedience. What about your experience could be used to help others turn failing faith to robust faith?
KEY POINTS
If you have been sinking in life because of troubles or by doubting the wisdom and power of God, stop looking at the waves and look to Jesus. He is the Lord of all circumstances and he will be there to see you through them.
PRAYER
Pray that God will be your refuge.
