Matthew 14:27-33
“Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’” vs. 31
Like us, Peter was one of those little-faith folks. He just couldn’t help it…doubts would creep into his mind without his bidding, not because he didn’t think Jesus was powerful and mighty, he knew Jesus could do spectacular things, but his doubts originated completely between his own ears. He didn’t believe that he could do the things Jesus thought him capable of, and his biggest obstacle was fear. He was afraid to fail…and as a result he did! At least Peter tried! So many of us can’t even take that first step. We don’t trust that we can do the job or complete the task, and we’re not even being asked to walk on water. We just don’t trust that we can do whatever it is that we’d like to do…and our fear of failing insures that we will indeed fail. We’ll miss the putt, hook the drive, blank out on the test, have a panic attack, say the wrong thing…there are so many ways to disappoint ourselves, and it always feels so bad. The good news is that when it happens, and we start to sink, we are not abandoned. A consoling hand reaches out, lifts us up, and we get still more chances. It’s easy to beat up on ourselves when failure comes and we think there is no good in us at all. That’s just not true. And some day–maybe when we expect it least–we relax, the fear stays away, and we actually walk on water!
Thought for the Day: When am I the least confident?
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