KEEP OUR FOCUS ON HIM
Matthew 14:28-30
"Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." 29 "Come," he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"
One morning, in the Missouri River breaks in South Dakota, we were driving the side by side down a near vertical trail, going towards the river. The ranches had been hit extremely hard with torrential rains and the roads and bridges were washed out everywhere. I was doing my best to stay straddling a dangerously deep washout, when I glanced away for just a second and I nearly slid into a place that would have buried me. It had only taken a second of taking my eyes off of my focus to put me in big trouble.
So often we feel called by God to do something for Him and all goes well until we hit a struggle or attack and we start to sink... we take our eyes off of His calling on us, and BOOM, we're in trouble.
In the scripture above, the Lord had invited Peter to share in His wonder, and Peter accepted the invitation. But when Peter evaluated his situation and saw the wind and waves, he almost sank. When we take our eyes off of Jesus and put it on our earthly struggles we will fall away from Him. When our focus changes from what He has called us to do, to our fears and discomfort, we lose site of what God can do and look at what we can't do on our own.
Oswald Chambers, said,
"We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on our difficulties."
Thankfully Peter's story didn't end in his sinking... Verses 31-33 tell the rest of the story.
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" 32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."
God's awesome grace can lift us even when we've taken our eyes off of Him. When we return to putting our focus on Him, He will restore us to Himself. We just need to keep our Focus on Him.
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