Many of us are familiar with the story of Peter, one of Jesus’ closest friends, walking on water.

(You can find the story in the Bible, Matthew 14:22-33.)

Here’s the jist:

Jesus finds out his cousin, and fellow God-worshipper, John is killed by beheading.

In His grief, Jesus withdraws to a remote place.

Crowds follow Him.

He ministers to them, for a full day, resulting in a very large hungry crowd!

Jesus feeds them, then sends His disciples ahead of Himself across the “Lake”.

Jesus goes off to pray for the night.

Close to dawn, Jesus comes to His friends, (who are still in the boat on a churning sea), walking on the water!

They think He’s a ghost!

Jesus speaks to them to assure them it is He.

We pick up the story with Peter’s words:

“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.”

Go back and read that again, this time take notice of Jesus’ actions and reactions.

Did you see it?

Did you see the ORDER in which Jesus acted, then spoke?

He invited Peter into the miracle.

He watched Peter act in faith, step by miraculous step, close enough to touch Him.

He saw Peter’s eyes drift.

He heard Peter’s cry.

IMMEDIATELY…

He reached out His hand.

He rescued, made sure Peter was safe, secure, with his focus back on Jesus.

Then, once Peter was safe, Jesus questioned him.

I think many of us see God as this disciplinarian, shaking His proverbial finger at us, shouting, “WHY DO YOU DOUBT!? YOU HAVE SUCH LITTLE FAITH!!”, putting us into a position of thinking we could never measure up!

We’re just failures!

But that’s NOT God!

(And we know this because Jesus is God revealed to us.)

Jesus’ go-to first reaction was not to reprimand Peter.

Jesus called him to a miracle!!  (Jesus calls us to miracles EVERYDAY!  Will you climb out of the boat to join Him?)

Jesus witnesses Peter’s doubt.  (Jesus sees our doubts, too!  He’s ready, hand out, to grab us when we falter!)

Jesus rescued!  (Jesus doesn’t leave us to flounder, trying to keep our head afloat in the sea of our doubts.)

Once safe, Jesus called Peter to MORE faith!  (Jesus puts our feet on solid ground and says, “Will you trust Me MORE?”)

Take the first step toward Jesus!

He’s Got You!!

He will never let you drown!!