"Why did you doubt?"

"Let me come to you on the water," Peter requests.

"Come," says Jesus.

Peter asks God to allow Him to walk on something that is impossible to walk on so that he can come to Him. In the middle of the wind and the waves, he desires drawing near to God. He steps out of the comfort of the boat and enters into the storm. He makes progress towards Jesus when he is focusing on Him. But the second he turns his eyes off of Him and onto the wind, he begins to sink. "Lord, save me!" He cries out.

"You of little faith!" Jesus says, reaching out to him, "Why did you doubt?" Naturally, it is easy to think, stupid Peter, you should have just focused on Jesus and not on the wind. But then, when we think of the times we didn't even have enough faith to climb out of the boat during the storm, we can begin to relate to Peter.

When we pray for Jesus to bring us close to Him, He expects some effort in return; some faith. The absolute best thing for us to do in the middle of chaos is to run to Jesus. But that's not so easy to do when the waters are crashing around you. Jesus calls out to us, "Come," and so we step onto the water. When we focus on Him, look to Him, marvel at Him, the wind and the waves around us seem to fade away. But when we focus on the wind, our problems, and try to make sense of how we could possibly make it to Jesus in the midst of the storm, we become overwhelmed, we doubt God's ability, His power and His ultimate strength. We see how big the waves are, how strong the wind is and forget how GREAT our God is! But in our cry for help, he reaches out to us and asks, "Why did you doubt?"

Why did we doubt that He is able? Why did we doubt His faithfulness? When, even after we took our eyes off of Him, he still came to our rescue? He pulls us into the boat of His presence and everything becomes still.

Walking with the goal of coming to Jesus is easy-- when we TRUST in Him. It's not a walk in the park... we will still be surrounded by troubles and we might be walking in the midst of the storm, but we simply must keep our eyes on Him. Look to His face and gracefully, you will walk in the middle of the wind. Don't focus on the troubles surrounding you that overwhelm you and fill you with doubt! Even when we fail to acknowledge Him, He still reaches out to us and pulls us into safety.

Yes, our problems are big and the waves are tossing around us, but our God is SO much bigger and He is calling out to us, trying to get our attention so we focus on Him. He is faithful in the storm, He is good. Even when we stumble, He is there, pulling us up. So let us walk confidently through today with our focus on our ever-present Father!

"I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other."

                Isaiah 45:5-6