Notes to the Lord: A Walk with Jesus

Matthew 14

22Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.

Lord Jesus--You were awake in the night...alone with your thoughts, the Father and the Holy Spirit. You spent time on the mountain, the people were gone and the disciples sent away. It was time to reflect on the death of John, on the press of the crowd and their expectations, and the need for new connection for shifting the ministry in a different direction. Thank you for the example of time spent in prayer...time to reflect on all that was happening and would happen.

When evening came, he was there alone, ²⁴but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. ²⁵During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.

The fourth watch of the night was just before dawn, it was some time between 3 to 6 in the morning that You can to these struggling men in a small boat in the middle of a deep lake. You had spent most of the night in prayer and now it was on the water that you started across the lake. They had worked the oars all night in a fight against the wind and the waves. Somehow ironic, it sounds like the life I live sometimes.

Lord Jesus--In this incident You demonstrated that the normal rules of the way things work in everyday life can change as you direct and dictate. Faith is not bounded by the normal rules of solids and liquids...can the Master of the universe make water a solid? Sure...it is called ice. You can do it no matterwhat the temperature. Can you do what is not possible in the situations that I find myself involved in? Absolutely...work Lord Jesus.

As I write this I am preparing to leave for Jason's graduation from graduate school a time of transition and celebration. In very real ways this was a time of transition in your ministry and in the lives of the disciples.

You were asking them to see you and allow you to challenge them to new places in their experience of you. You were calling them to trust even when it is not comfortable and even when the wind is blowing all around them. You ask the same from me. A walk with you Lord is not always a stroll through the pines in the cool of the evening. Sometimes it is a walk that is surround by fear and wind, when it looks as if you are

a ghost to these eyes of mine. The real question is: am I willing to allow You to stretch the limits my soul?

26When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were

terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. ²⁷But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."28"Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." 29"Come," he said.

Peter could have just as easily kept his mouth shut...but instead he was willing to do what he had never done before. He asked for the wind and the water. I can stay in the boat. You allow for that in your plans for my life. I am sure that it would have been less messy if Peter had just stay in that little fishing boat as the wind played with their lives. But he did not stay seated...he got up and listened to your call.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. ³⁰But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"

³¹Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"

Lord Jesus--That is always the question isn't? Why did he doubt? Peter, I know how it feels. Why do I doubt? Maybe it is the wind and maybe it is the water playing games just under my feet...maybe it is the nightmares that plays at the edge of my mind and heart. Maybe it is the fear that you will let me fall for no reason. Lack of faith expresses it self in so many ways in my experience...denial doesn't help when I am all wet.

³²And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. ³³Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

Lord Jesus--In the middle of the moisture of my lack of faith I have real appreciation for the spirit of this fisherman Peter...he and I could have had some fun together. There is also the certain knowledge that even when I get my feet wet, it is always better to move than to stay in the safe boat. You can use my wet feet in your kingdom in a way and place that reaches me when I am in over my head.

As the wind dies down, there is worship even with wet feet and face, I worship the One who calls, sustains and blesses.