Step out the Boat!

DAILY BYTE

If we are left with only yesterday’s message: That God is with us even in our darkest times, then that it is good and true message, but it is actually only half God’s message. You will notice that we have covered only half the material in this story so far.

Faith should do more than just bring comfort, it should also bring challenge. This story reminds us that the very nature of faith means being challenged to step out in some way: To be more, to become more, to share more.

Peter says to Jesus in Matt. 14. 28, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” As John Ortberg has so famously said: “If you want to walk on water, you have to get out the boat.”

Sometimes our boats represent places of false security and safety for us. When I worked as a Youth Pastor, I spent years pastorally counselling a young teenage girl who had anorexia. We went through countless emergency visits, prayer times and hospital visitations until one day we both realised something.

She did not actually want to get better.

Perhaps in more frustration than I should have, I once asked her, “Do you really want to be healed?”
She gave me a strange look, thought for awhile, and then replied: “Actually I don’t think so. My anorexia is my thing, it brings me the attention I crave from my parents and friends. I can’t imagine my life without it.”

Sometimes we live in circles of dysfunction. It is like our little boat becomes stuck in a whirlpool and perpetually travels round and round the same old issues, never truly embracing the possibility of God-offered healing, wholeness and freedom.

There is no way of making this easier for us, and God does not even try. Notice that Jesus did not calm the waves for Peter. He just said ‘come,’ and within that call is a sense of ‘trust me, I’ll be here if you need me BUT if you want to walk on water, if you want to follow me, YOU HAVE TO GET OUT YOUR BOAT.

You have to leave behind your comfort zones and places of false security. It’s never going to be easy, but it just has to be done. Believing in God can give you wonderful life dreams, but following God will give you blisters. Or at the very least it will give you wet feet!

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus called his disciples to become fishers of people, but about half way through comes this change, where Jesus began to say ‘well, now I need to teach you to carry a cross.’

To be healed, comforted, loved and encouraged is only part of the bigger salvation story that we get to step out into. A story that seeks to move us beyond us, if that makes any sense.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Gracious God, help me to obey your call to step more fully out into wherever you are calling me. Help me to get out of whatever boat I may be in, and to courageously follow you wherever you may lead. Amen

FOCUS READING

Matthew 14 : 28-33

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, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!" Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."