Matthew 14:28-31 “And Peter answered Him and said, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water." (29) So, He said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. (30) But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!" (31) And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit gives us a vivid example of what it means to walk by faith and not by sight. The context of this passage is that the disciples were on the lake of Galilee in the early hours of the morning. It was still dark, and they had been rowing with some difficulty to cross the lake because there was a strong wind that was blowing against them. Our Lord Jesus was not with them in the boat because He had stayed behind to dismiss the crowds and He had then gone up the mountain to pray. After His time in prayer Jesus then crossed the lake by walking on the water. He caught up with the disciples still struggling to row to the other side and He would have carried on past them but they saw Him, and when they did they cried out in fear because they thought they were seeing a ghost. Our Lord then calmed them down by telling them that it was Him they were seeing and not a ghost. And so we pick up the account as Peter is responding to what the Lord had just said, and now the Holy Spirit gives us a lesson on what happens when we walk by faith and not by sight. Peter had received the word of God, which was completely contrary to his circumstance, for we all know that in the natural it is impossible for anyone to walk on water. And yet Jesus had said to him that he could walk on the water, for our Lord said “Come”. At this point Peter begins to walk by faith and no longer by sight, for he climbs down out of the boat and walks on the water to go to Jesus. As long as Peter had his eyes on Jesus and His word the power of God could flow, which enabled Peter to walk on water. Up until this point Peter had been ignoring his circumstances in the natural and was fully focused on God’s word. And then the Holy Spirit gives us a lesson on what happens when we begin to walk by sight and no longer by faith. The scripture says that “when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid”. And so we see that the moment that Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and His word and began to look at his circumstances in the natural, doubt arose in Peter’s mind. It is when Peter began to doubt, that the power of God stopped working and Peter began to sink. And so we see that Peter’s faith was affected by what he was looking at. In the exact same manner, what we look at either produces faith or it produces doubt. If we look at God’s word it will produce faith. If we look at our natural circumstances it will produce doubt. The lesson is clear that whichever promise of God that we believe for, we must keep our eyes on His promise and refuse to consider our circumstance that we want changed. As we look at the promise of God it will produce faith, and our faith will then release the power of God that will change our circumstance to line up with His promise. But as we have also seen in this example, we need to keep our eyes focused on God’s word until God’s miracle has been fully manifested in our lives. It was the Lord’s will that Peter walk out to Him on the water and then the two of them could have walked back to the boat together. But before that could happen, Peter took his eyes off God’s word and therefore never experienced God’s full blessing.
Michael E.B. Maher
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