Friends Be inspired today with Matthew 14:25-31. What amazing lessons we can learn from this incident! (25) And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. (26) And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. (27) But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. (28) And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. (29) And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. (30) But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. (31) And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? We see that doubt causes fear, but we also see a hint of how we can combat that fear and get it under control. As long as Peter kept his focus on Christ, he could do the impossible, but once he began walking by sight, fear overtook him. Under its control, he was no longer able to do the impossible. Even though fear is a natural human emotion, do we control it or does it control us? (see also Genesis 4:7) Hebrews 3:12 warns, Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. We need to be on guard against unbelief. The author brings up a picture of an enemy ready to pounce on us, advising us that we always need to be at the ready for its attack. We must face it and overcome it. This verse is not talking about the normal unbelief and its fruit of fear that all people have, for fearfulness is a common human condition. As our Creator, God understands that doubts will creep in now and again. Rather, it speaks of a heart controlled by doubt, by unbelief, leading to fear that can cause us to cut and run from the living God. That kind of heart will drag a person down just as Peters doubt dragged him down into the waters of Galilee. The central peril of unbelief is that it breaks the trust that is the basis of our relationship with God. We can see how this worked in Satan. God created him perfect (Ezekiel 28:15), yet somewhere along the line he no longer believed that God was good and doubted that God had his best interests at heart. This doubt about Gods love led to the fear that he would not get what he deserved. That fear, born of his unbelief and doubt, led to his rebellion and the most glaring example yet of departing from the living God. Does God have our best interests at heart? Jeremiah 29:11 says, Yes! For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. As the old saying goes, this is straight from the horses mouth—from the highest Authority in the universe. The only question is do we believe it all our being? If you have not yet accepted Christ into your, will you consider that today! Run from the wrath that’s coming to this world. May God bless you today in all your endeavours!
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 04:54:46 +0000
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