Water-Walking FaithSample

Water-walkers endure

You may have a brilliant memory – never forgetting your keys, or your lunch, or your kids. And yet we all sometimes forget about the things God’s done for us in the past. We need to look back at His goodness to us, because that will bolster our faith for the long haul and galvanise us to step out of the boat.

Even though Jesus says to Peter, ‘You of little faith’ (Matthew 14:31), it’s not the size of Peter’s faith that He’s referring to. It’s the stamina. Given his recent experiences as one of Jesus’ disciples, Peter should’ve had ample faith during his encounter on the waves. Matthew 14:13-21 is all about Jesus feeding 5,000 men (plus approximately 10,000 women and children), and right after that, Peter has his water-walking experience. I wonder what would’ve wowed me more: the miraculous multiplying of food, or the miraculous walking on water. Even though Peter lost focus, and subsequently lost faith, on the water, I’m pretty sure the feeding of the 5,000 had a lot to do with his faith decision to step out of the boat. He must’ve felt invincible!

But the truth is we all forget about the faithfulness of God, and there’s tremendous power in reminding ourselves that He’s good, trustworthy, and able to deliver. That’s why Joshua encouraged the Israelites to remember, when God had safely and miraculously led them across the Jordan River (Joshua 4). Be sure to set up some kind of reminder of how good God has been to you and pray for opportunities to answer someone’s questions about it so you can re-tell the story of God’s faithfulness. Brainstorm creative ways you could mark significant displays of God’s deliverance or dependability in your life. If God was faithful yesterday, He will be faithful today and tomorrow. If God can heal yesterday, He can heal today and tomorrow. If God can save yesterday, He can save today and tomorrow. Sometimes, we need to look backwards in order to move forwards.

In Matthew 17:20, Jesus says, ‘If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.’ So, where faith is concerned, size doesn’t matter. In fact, the word ‘little’ as it’s used in Matthew 14:31 really implies inexperienced. It’s a word you’d use to describe an apprentice. Think about where you find yourself on the spectrum of faith ranging from inexperienced to experienced and try to discern what causes your faith to fluctuate.

May your faith continue to mature, so that you can endure. May God send you constant reminders of His unwavering faithfulness and trustworthiness, so that you can go the distance between the miracles. God is calling you out of the familiar and into the unknown. He is raising a generation of people with mountain-moving, storm-calming, sea-splitting, ground-taking, body-raising, water-walking faith. Will you get out of the boat?

This plan was adapted from the series, Water-Walking Faith, on RightNow Media. To find out more, visit:https://www.rightnowmedia.org/au/get-access