While out walking today and sharing with Father, two scriptures came together in my mind, Matthew 14 (Jesus walking on the water) and Hebrews 12:2.

Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.

Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.

But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”

And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”

Hebrews 12:2 …looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

Peter, leaving the security of the boat in the midst of the storm, did in fact walk on the water a ways. We are not told how far or how many steps he took, before giving way to the elements around him. What we are told is that he “saw that the wind was boisterous” and this led to fear and in turn his starting to sink.

We can assume then, that while successfully walking atop the waves Peter was concentrating on something other than the “boisterous” waves, the wind, the storm etc. And there can only be one object of his fixed attention and this could only be the Lord. “Looking unto Jesus…” we are told in Hebrews, “the author and finisher of our faith“.

So Peter (I am one of those who strongly feels Peter is treated far too unkindly by commentators and Christians in general) started well (no other disciples asked the Lord to command them to come to Him). And he even entered in the faith of the Lord by doing what was naturally impossible to do - he, a full grown man, did indeed stride atop the waves that he knew all too well as a seasoned fisherman. He did so because, for a short time anyway, he fixed his gaze on the only one who could perform His word, the author and finisher of faith.

And so I started to reconsider all my concepts of faith - what it was, how it grew, what it meant to our Heavenly Father. Clearly then, many of our religious notions regarding “faith” may in fact be confounding or distorting what is really a simple matter - fixing our eyes on the Faithful One!

How does our faith grow and mature then? Not by striving after more faith? Not by fixing our attention on faith itself even. Not even solely by studying great exploits in faith by so-called champions of faith (although this can be most encouraging).

He is the beginning, the source, and the fulfillment of faith, yet He is also the object of it! What faith looks to! Peter knew the waves and the sea all to well. He had been tossed and turned by its swells and moods all of his life. He had no doubt looked long at the heaving tides that surrounded his little boat. He knew wind and storm too no doubt; the often fierce and unpredictable tyranny of the elements on the Sea of Galilee. We too, my friends, know this world all too well, how it moves and turns and tosses us about, and we have all, over the course of our lives, devised ways of responding to it - instincts, habits, patterns, etc. - based on all that we are and have become.

Faith, as I am slowly coming to learn, is simply turning our attention; fixing our eyes on Jesus - the Way the Truth and the Life, the Author and Perfecter of Faith, the Beginning and the End of all the plans and purposes of the Most High God!

We cannot work to attain greater faith - we must come to rest solely and intimately in the only One who is Faithful! Praying for more faith is fine, but again we must understand how the Father might respond to this prayer - by removing all else that we trust in, that we look to, to hold us together in this world! It is the Father’s will that all be lost that we would gain His most precious gift - His Son!

Are we then being tested and tried? Are the waves of hardship and persecution spilling over into our little boat? Is our first temptation and response to fix our attention on the storm and the swell, the noise and the uncertainty all around us, and even how small and insignificant we are in the midst of it? These are certainly fearful and uncertain times dear brethren, times of wind and storm, and I certainly do not wish to negate how difficult daily life is becoming for many of the Lord’s people. And if my sense of the prophetic moment is anywhere near to being correct, then things are poised to get a whole lot worse before they get better.

The disciples, having set out ahead of the Lord (it was He who sent them on ahead without Him, indicating that this whole ordeal was a God-ordained test), had to learn a lesson that we too must learn, and it is that He will never leave us nor forsake us. Though He was not physically with them in the boat, they were not left alone to their own doom, destiny and devices. For He was there with them in the midst, and even above the storm; there almost in view, “like a ghost”, but certainly no mere apparition or shadow, but the “Substance of things hoped for“.

For our Lord was with them indeed, and as real and even more real than the water, the wind, the waves and even the boat that stood between them and the deep. As Hudson Taylor has shared, having discovered this secret long before us brethren -

Faith, I now see, is “the substance of things hoped for,” and not mere shadow. It is not less than sight, but more. Sight only shows the outward form of things; faith gives the substance. You can rest on substance, feed on substance. Christ dwelling in the heart by faith (i. e., His Word of Promise credited) is power indeed, is life indeed. And Christ and sins will not dwell together; nor can we have His presence with love of the world, or carefulness about “many things.” (View more here)

Interesting brethren, that faith and substance are here associated together, for it would appear on the surface, that faith would be opposed or contradictory to substance (or the possession in hand of the thing in view). I personally have always assumed that to touch and see is superior to belief; that faith was “less than sight”. Yet accordingly, the Lord wants us to see that this is in fact not the case, and that our faith in His Word (both the Scriptures and the Living Word made flesh) is something He takes very personally.

I hope, the Lord willing, to be sharing more personal reflections on faith and what it means to our Lord that may be helpful to others moving through times of perplexity, difficulty and testing. In the meantime, please pray for one another in these fearful times, that the we would show forth our Lord in all His fullness and love to one another, as He cares for His Body, and brings us all to that state of readiness and maturity in faith that we know must be His will.

Gracious Father, please help us Lord to fix our attention on He who is the Substantial One, the Faithful One, who loved us and gave Himself for us, and who has promised us so great a future in His Kingdom. Though the wind and the storm swells all around us in this dark day, and though each of us are being tried and tested in each our own way, help us not to suffer the natural temptation to fixate on circumstance, environment or any other consideration that takes our eyes off of Him. Thank you Lord, In Jesus Glorious Name, we pray Amen.

Please pray for me folks, that I would look to Him alone in the midst of this present and somewhat grievous trial; not the world or the situation; not how bad the economy has become; not what men do or do not do - only to Him. Always to Him! For He is my salvation and my high tower, my right arm and victory, my shield and buckler, my shelter within the storm! my all and everything regardless of what anyone says!