That's me, on the right - the only English person amongst a sea of Estonians (pardon the pun). It was carefully executed, I was set up to be humiliated by another member of the group who volunteered my services when the guy in the lifejacket asked for assistants in his talk. I couldn't hear the translator and still don't have a clue what he was talking about, but he was making us pretend to row...at least I think thats what we were doing, I just copied everyone else. But I can hazard a guess that he was talking about the whole walking on water thing...though his lifejacket clearly demonstrates a lack of faith. I had to remind myself of the story - so often I take commonly heard stories like this one for granted and never think about/learn from them properly. Matthew 14:22-33...
Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." "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?" And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."
Often, I won't trust God, I'll complain about how bad things are; but then He'll claim the victory as ever, and I'll be stood there wondering why I ever doubted Him...He asks "you of little faith, why did you doubt?"...and I can't answer because I should have learnt by now!
Hebrews 11:1-2 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for" Will you be commended for your faith like the ancients were? I won't! Like I said a minute ago, I let stories like this wash over me (sorry, another pun) without properly taking it in...so when I read it just now, I noticed something I've never picked up before...Jesus didn't just tell Peter to get out of the boat. Peter asked Him to do it - to put his faith to the test. Take whatever you like from that because I'm too tired and I don't know where I'm going with this...but to get to Jesus, Peter had to be certain of what he could not see. Are we in a position where we can rely on our faith, and make a personal decision to step out of the boat and into the unknown? Hebrews 11 describes how many people lived by faith..Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the Israelites, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets...all these people and more achieved great things by faith. I want my name to be somewhere on that list too.
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YAYY
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