Faith

Faith.

I have been searching this out in my heart lately.

"Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." "Come", Jesus 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?" (Matthew 14:28-31)

I have to admit, I am more of a "wind and the waves" person than a powerful man of faith.

Peter said "Lord if it's you," seems in times of wind and waves I have a hard time seeing Jesus.

Peter did. If we are all honest we all do at some time.

Caught in the eye of the storm everything looks a little more scary.

But still Jesus says "Come", get out of that boat and get out on the water. I want your faith.

Notice that Peter asks to come out of the boat first. He knows he wants to be with Jesus, he knows that Jesus is his only hope in the storm. He wants to be where Jesus is. But when he sees the wind he sinks.

How often do we ask Jesus that we want to be closer to Him, that we want to experience more of God and the Holy Spirit in our lives and then when He calls us out of our boats of safety we cry out in fear and start to sink.

I do. I cry out to God to know Him more, to experience Him deeper, and then when He starts trimming off the dead branches of my faith, and starts to test me I cry out "why is this happening to me?"

Yup, I am sheep.

I may be intellectually smart. I have even been to Bible College, I know about God. But when it comes to faith I am dumb like a sheep. Seems it is like faith short term memory loss.

I have it. And so did the Israelites.

No sooner did they get released from captivity for some bonehead sin as a nation, then they would get back into the same mess and away they went back into captivity again. Only football has more turnarounds than Israel did.

They were sheep too. I am in good company.

Moses was a sheep. At the burning bush he argued with God that He had the wrong guy. I st-st-stutter Moses said. God said thats ok. Still going to use you.

David was a sheep. Killed a man, took his wife. Yikes. Big screw up. In the running for head sheep. But a man after God's own heart.

Noah was a sheep. Build an ark in the middle of a desert. Man he must of thought he was nuts some days. But he built it anyways and mankind was saved.

Elijah was a sheep. He had just seen God send fire from Heaven and he had just killed all of Jezebel's false prophets. And there he was hiding in a cave. But God used that man to turn a nation around.

Yup all sheep. But God used them.

They didnt have the Bible on tape, the Torah on their Palm Pilot, or even a Messiah that had shown up yet.

But they had faith.

When everything was flying around them, when they were in the midst of the wind and the waves, they knew exactly who to cry out to.

They knew who to go to fix the mess they were in.

Like Jesus, God must of shook his head and asked where their faith was. Silly Sheep.

We know who to go to, we know where God is, we know where He wants us to be. There is a Reason Jesus is called the Good Shepherd.

Why do we struggle with staying there? Why can't we stay focused on Jesus? What is it with the wind and the waves that distracts us from our faith?

Mabey that is the point. "In our weakness is His strength."

God is teaching us day by day, knocking out from underneath of us any and all things that we lean on instead of Him, leading, guiding and correcting us. Shepherding us.

Every time He knocks another crutch out from underneath us, we protest "Hey! I was using that!"

But He quietly and gently, and lovingly whispers in our ears "Yes, now lean on me"

What are my crutches? Do I lean on money? A job? My intellect? My friends? My church? My family?

Or do I lean on the one who flung the stars into place, who calls me by name, who knit me in my mother's womb, who knows every hair on my head and who holds me in the palm of His hand?

The same God who holds the keys to death and hades, who is forever without end, who never fails and who loved me enough to die for me is the same still small voice who called Peter that night to come onto the waves and who calls me to believe and not doubt, who when I do immediately reaches out with His nail scarred hands to catch me.

This is the same God who calls Himself Yahweh-Jireh(Our Provider), Jehovah Raffi(Our Healer), Yahweh-Rohi (Our Shepherd), Yahweh-Shalom(Our Peace), Yahweh-Shammah(God is There) and El-Roi "God who Sees me" or "God of Vision" (Gen. 16:13). The God sees needs of His people and responds.

Now that is a God I can have faith in.