Focused Faith: God Cares

“Lord, save me!” Immediately, Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. 

 Matthew 14: 31b-32a

The story of Jesus empowering Peter to walk on the water during a windy night is amazing. Peter saw Jesus walking on the water, and his faith and hope were so increased that he asked Jesus if he could walk out on the water with Him. In this account recorded in Matthew 14:22-33, we see Jesus demonstrating what's possible through His act of walking on the water, and then we see Him inviting those with faith to experience what is possible in Him.

In our journey of healing and deliverance, God wants to show us what is possible in Him and then invites us to experience it. We can know what is possible when we read scripture, we see Jesus performing spiritual, physical, and emotional healing and deliverance. And we do not have to question whether healing and deliverances are for us because He died so they would be available to us. God did not require us to make extreme efforts to make it available to us, but gave it to us through the death of His son, who revealed what is possible to us. He did not show us triumph, healing, deliverance, miracles, salvation, or forgiveness for us not to experience them. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for the one who comes to God must believe that He exists, and that He proves to be One who rewards those who seek Him.” He rewards our faith and trust in His promises. God is not a man that He should lie (Numbers 23:19), but He rewards those who look to Him to fulfill the promises that He has given (2 Corinthians 1:20).

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus.

-Matthew 14:28-29

Peter starts off full of faith and begins to walk towards Jesus, but in verse 30, we see that he takes his eyes off Jesus and begins to pay more attention to the wind, and when his eyes leave Jesus, he no longer is walking on water but sinking. When Peter begins to sink, he cries out to Jesus, who's always been there, and Jesus reaches out and catches him. First, I must commend Peter for even thinking he could walk on water, because Jesus could. That amount of faith is monumental to me; however, we later see Jesus reprimanding him for doubting.

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? ”And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.

-Matthew 14:30-32

This incident in scripture speaks to many of our journeys of healing and deliverance. We hear a message or see God move in someone else’s life, and our faith is built up. We say, “Yes, Lord, Me too,” and begin to lean on the greatness and mercies of God. We focus on the Author and Finisher of faith, we believe, and we begin to walk towards that healing, that deliverance, those promises. We have nothing but faith that it will come to pass. Then we get distracted by the wind, and we let the things that are stirring around us cause us to take our focus off of Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith. We succumb to what we see beneath us and around us rather than walking towards what Christ said that we can have. We begin to sink into fear, doubt, and circumstance. But we see that Christ doesn't condemn us; He does reprimand us, but that is after He rescues us from the things we have succumbed to in His presence when we call out to Him.

When we call out to Him for salvation, He's right there to respond immediately. So, wherever you are in your healing and deliverance journey, whether you are on day one, day 2, or year 3. Or God has done a miraculous work in you, and He will see it to completion.

I want to encourage us to keep a focused faith. A faith that looks to Jesus to tell us what's possible, and then receives from Him, keeping our eyes on the One who is faithful. Remember that the wind and waves may come, but with Christ they are held back, and do not change what Jesus has done. We were saved so that we could come and walk with Christ above those things that have troubled us. Peter wanted to walk on water because Jesus gave him the desire to do so. You have a desire for deliverance and healing, freedom, peace, and joy in your life because God has planted the possibility inside of you, and He wants to see you embrace it. He wants you to keep your eyes on Him and not allow situations, circumstances, the unstable, loud, disconcerting, and distracting things around you, to keep you from what He said you can have.

Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Matthew 14:33

Rather, we have stayed the course and held on to faith, or have lost focus and had to call out to God to save. Through it all, we will see that God is who He says He is. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, and as we continue to grow in our faith and trust in Him, we will see small to grand moves of God.  We will experience and testify to mighty things.

Prayer

Father God, we declare we will see restoration, healing, salvation, and deliverance, which Christ purchased and Your word proclaims we can have.  We will honor You and let You truly be Lord and Savior in our lives. We declare that we will not succumb to the distractions, hurts, temptations, and fears of life, but faithfully look to You, Who is faithful and watches over Your word to perform it (Jeremiah 1:12). We will worship You with our lives and praise You with our mouths, the Author and Finisher of our faith. In Jesus Name, Amen