Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water

Two blogs in one day??...yes here is the blog.

God is amazing.  His mercies are new every morning and His love is unending.  He gently holds His children and answers our prayers in powerful ways.  Why do we begin doubting and lose faith so easily?  Why after a season of rich blessing and His visible hand working do we turn around and wonder why He is being silent or telling us to wait on Him, we turn to Him asking why He isn’t answering and fall back into doubts and fears.  We treat Him like His quiet voice and His work in stillness is not enough.  God doesn’t always work in fireworks or huge displays of glory....look at the birth of His Son.  Christ was not born in pomp and glory....one of the greatest events in all of history happened in a quiet stable.  Yes the angels burst out of Heaven to tell the shepherds..but in all that time there was silent’s in the world.  We get downhearted when God doesn’t reveal His answers in our idea of “AWESOME”.  Many times we set ourselves up for disappointment because we set our focus on our tiny “order of events” that we lose sight of  Christ and His better order of things...yes the outcome may be the same one but His way of getting there is so much better and will make the outcome even more breathtaking.  But before we get to the “end” we MUST learn to trust and have faith.

Hmmmm faith...trust....those can be very scary words even scarier to live out.  How many times do we ask God to call us out of our comfort zones and to Himself.....how many times do we really mean it?  Probably in the beginning we are all fired up and in the mindset of , “I can do it...I can walk on the water”, but really regret it once we get out of the boat.  Just think of Peter on that stormy night.  Yes it was stormy, but he was in his boat and that was a place of “comfort” he knew what to expect...being in a boat on a stormy lake...that’s normal for a fisherman, nothing to worry about.(ok well in some cases it is something to worry about, but not in this case)  He and the other men see Jesus walking toward them....ok that would be creepy.  You are in the middle of a lake, at night and its stormy.  And something is walking on the water toward you.....yeah I’d be screaming “GHOST” too. Anyways...after Jesus tells them who He is and tells them not to fear Peter(probably all excited with a hint of nervousness) says, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water”.  You all know the rest of the story..if not go read Matthew 14:22-33 then come back and finish this.   Now take that story and put yourself into it.  You see Jesus out on the water coming towards you, telling you not to fear..and you are like “I can so do this”!  You know that is Christ is there you can go to Him, no storm will overtake you.  So you ask Him to call you out to himself if it really is Him and He does.  You leap out, your eyes fully on Him..heart full of trust that you are going to make it.  You take a few steps and in your peripheral vision you see movement, it may just be your mind playing tricks on you so you keep walking.  But ever so slowly your eyes begin to wander, and then your head turns....your mind starts playing through your worst fears.  You still see Christ in front of you but He seems really far away and doesn’t seem to show any sign of running to where you are.  Soon you stop moving and look around you over thinking all your fears in your mind...and they start to play out in real life.  You begin to sink.  Now I’m sure you all know what that feeling is like....from an outsiders point of view it all happens really fast but for the person sinking time slows down and you have what seems like forever to think and be afraid.  I’m sure when Peter started to sink it felt like Jesus wouldn’t get there in time....but do you see what the verse says...”Jesus immediately reached out His hand”.  Jesus didn’t wait for Peter to go under....Jesus was there right away. 

So many times we pray and ask to be called out to follow God...our walk starts out good and full of trust.  But as time goes on we begin to walk in our own power and look around us; we are meant to keep our eyes on Christ at ALL times...never taking them off, even of the world around us is being destroyed....our walk and our lives are only possible through Christ.  We do not have the power.  We must give up ourselves and let Him take over.  Yes it is a scary thing....we may have to sacrifice the things we love most.  But His way is much better.  I know its hard to believe and even I find letting go of my own idea of how things should go to be one of the hardest things...and trust me some days I cant.  But with Christ there is no true loss of good.  Maybe the only thing standing between you and your answered prayer is your death grasp on how you want it to be.  The end may be the same...but letting a rose open by itself(which is very boring to watch and you want to give up) gives you a beautiful open flower....rather than the ripped pieces of a rose you wanted open right away...they are both open but one is by far better.  

Trust that God WILL give you good.  Just wait and live.  Dont force life...dont pray for answers you don’t need yet.  Of course you won’t get them...you are meant to trust and life.  Live without fear and always remember the good and hold onto it for dear life.  Dont over think yourself into doubt and fear by focusing on all the wrong you don’t want to do.  Just think of how different our lives would be if we focused on doing good and focus on the good being done.

Well thats all for now...that was long.

Gods blessings to all!