Faithfully Trusting

“Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves. When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, “It’s a ghost!” But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here! ” Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.” “Yes, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted. Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?””

Matthew 14:24, 26-31 NLT

I love this passage from Matthew. To me it’s a reminder that God will always be there to help us when we are completely overwhelmed and don’t know what to do. But today I’m going to be talking about faithfully trusting in God. 

Faith- complete trust or confidence in someone or something. 

Trust- believe in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something. 

Trust and faith go hand in hand. When we put our complete trust in someone we don’t doubt their ability to complete a task or to have our best interest in mind.

When Peter stepped out on the water he put his faith and trust in Jesus-he believed it was Jesus on the water.

Faithfully trusting- he stepped out on the water. But it was when he became distracted and let fear cripple his faith when he began to sink and panic. 

How many times in our lives do we say we trust God and struggle to put our faith into action? What’s the point of saying you trust God when you don’t put the words into actions. It’s hard to quit the job when you don’t have a second one lined up. Its hard when you lose someone you are so much about. Any trial you’re going through is hard.  But if God brings you to the storm he will help you through the storm. Just as Peter began to sink Jesus was right there to grab his hand and pull him up. Jesus didn’t let him fight for air for a few minutes to teach him a lesson. No. He was right there. Pulling him out of the water. 

Peter thought of the unknown. What would happen if he did go underwater. As soon as he began to put his focus on other things rather than Jesus he got himself into a pickle. We can’t focus on the unknowns of life. We can’t focus on not knowing what’s going to happen next. If we knew exactly what was going to happen next in our lives we wouldn’t need Jesus. We wouldn’t need to trust in Him. We wouldn’t need our faith put in Him. Only God knows the end from the beginning. He knows what you are going to think or going to say 10 minutes from now. If we already knew all of that there would be no need for a God to trust in. To lean on because we really don’t know what’s going to happen. We don’t know if today could be our last. Or if we are going to lose a loved one. 

Just like Peter on the water. We still let our flesh get in the way of us faithfully trusting in Jesus and we listen to the voices saying “that’s not Jesus on the water...he’s not there...this is too much for you, he’s not going to help you.”

 But then Jesus reaches down in our darkest most helpless time. 

He’s saying “Why do you doubt me? Don’t you know I’m always here? I’m always watching, my intentions for you are only good.” 

Then- that trial we were going through all of a sudden stops. And we think “why did I ever doubt him?”

Faithfully Trust in Jesus. He will always be there.