Weather Report From Heaven: Sunny and bright, with an abundance of light and lots of singing and rejoicing.
Scripture- “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” – Matthew 14:28-31
Insight: I love the above Scripture of Peter’s attempt to walk on the water upon Jesus’s command. I give Peter lots of credit for getting out of the boat and trying while the others fearfully clung to their “safety” in the boat. But the part of the story that is practical in my walk right now that I want to share is what happens when we take our eyes of our Jesus and His authority, as Peter did and he instantly began to sink. Why? Because then Peter was left with only his own limitations and fears instead of the power and authority of Jesus to rely on. In a subtle way, Peter for an instant got prideful and said “I got this’ ‘ when in fact he had nothing if he wasn’t fully dependent on Jesus. How many times do we do this same thing? When we are more excited about doing anything our way, rather than relying on His perfect plan as revealed to us in prayerful meditation on Scripture, we are setting ourselves up for sinking rather than walking on the water. How many times do we get more excited about running to other things rather than seeking God’s eternal treasures found in the Bible first? Submission or prideful rebellion are the only two options we are offered in our relationship with the authority of Jesus in our lives. Submission brings peace, pride brings anxiety. We are all like Peter to some degree in our faith walk, shifting between moments of steadfast devotion and self reliance. Just today in my prayer time, it became painfully obvious how I sometimes am more excited about checking sports scores or stories or financial quotes than I am pouring myself into His word every morning. Which do you think provides more abundance and peace?
In fact, we all want God’s blessings in our lives, but we can’t fully receive them if in our pride we are not submitting all things to Him. In my life, this has been true at various times with my finances, relationships, health and work ethic to name just a few. This requires repentance and a humble spirit to approach him in all honesty and truth and admit we have blown it and we need to do better. In fact, just this morning, He showed me in prayer time how He had been supernaturally blessing me in my finances over the last few years,. Proverbs 10:22 says “The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, without painful toil for it.” I have seen this firsthand in my faith walk. Yet many times, I create anxiety when believe i need more than what He has already faithfully provided. Nothing causes more anxiety than an attitude of lack, thinking greedily that we always need more. Anxiety is a leading cause of distraction and allows the enemy to have a stronghold in my life that keeps me from fully having my eyes on Jesus. I was humbled recently when I thought about how foolish I have been in letting my pride get in the way of His blessings! Let’s go to the scoreboard on this lesson: His plan brings wealth without painful toil for it, which allows me time to spend in His presence praising Him; My way brings anxiety, loss and fear, allows the enemy to gain a stronghold and keeps me distracted from praising Him. Foolish indeed! I guess we all have many lessons still to learn, but like Peter we can take heart that Jesus isn’t through with us yet!
Prayer: Father God, thank you that you never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5) even when our actions probably deserve it. But thankfully you are not like us, and your love is not circumstantial like ours is on so many occasions. You are truly a great and loving God, who is worthy of all praise. Help us to surrender all areas of our life to you, especially the ones we stickily cling to, for anything less is prideful rebellion. We pray in Jesus name. Amen!
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