“Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and
caught him.
‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’”
‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’”
Matthew 14:31
When I was a volunteer youth worker, both students and parents asked me questions about doubt. When a
parent asked me, they were often in a state of panic because their child who had trusted God was all of a sudden questioning Him. Some parents who called were angry because they
believed doubt was sin and their child was rebelling. When teenage girls asked me
about doubt they expressed a lot of emotion which indicated they were carrying shame over the doubts they were experiencing. However, I found the students who expressed their doubts to be the ones growing
the most. It is those that wouldn’t acknowledge doubt that stayed stuck in the doubt who ended up going through the motions of being a
Christian, but in reality were relying mostly on their parent’s faith rather than their own. It's
important to understand doubt is not a sin; it's an emotion. It's a
barometer telling us we need to wrestle with God’s truth and make it our own so that His truth is driven to the core of our being. Doubt can be a response to
circumstances, a limited point of view, or to lies the enemy constantly whispers in our ears.
The above verse
is from the account of Jesus walking on water. His disciples were in a boat in
the middle of the night and were enveloped by a huge storm that hindered their travel. The wind blew so hard waves were crashing over the boat, frightening even the disciples who were seasoned fishermen. When the disciples see
Christ walking on water, they think He is a ghost and become
even more terrified. So, He calls to them, telling them not to be afraid. Peter,
who had spent many years fishing, calls out to Him, “Lord, since it is You
order me to come to you on the water.” Christ told Peter to come and he immediately responded to the Lord by climbing out of the boat and began to take steps on the stormy
sea. His was a response of trust to something the Lord said. I like Peter’s impulsiveness in obeying Christ. Me, I tend to analyze God’s commands to see if they make sense and if they are safe. I can relate to Peter because after the first few steps, he began to look around and the storm loomed big and his doubt grew. Yet, even as he was sinking and doubting, he called to the Lord. I find it hard to cry out to God when I'm doubting because of shame. Yet, that is
exactly what He would like me to do.
Did Peter have
faith? Yes, Christ acknowledged his faith. When
Christ called Peter to come, Peter didn't pause, he climbed right out
of the "safety" of the boat and began walking toward Christ. As the wind grew stronger
and the waves got bigger, he glanced at his circumstances, realizing walking
on water didn't make sense and maybe the enemy stirred the waves and whispered louder in his ear causing his fear to grow and as doubt began to grow began to
sink. When Peter stepped out, he knew
the power to walk on water would come from Christ. After all we aren't made to be water walkers. We aren't told that Peter was afraid when he stepped out of the boat, but if he did his
faith was stronger than his fear. As the waves grew bigger, Peter took his eyes off the Lord, causing his fear to intensify. But, his faith did not completely diminish. For in his
moment of sinking doubt, he called to Jesus! I love that! He did not beat himself up for
doubting, he didn't give up on his relationship with God, and he didn't claim God had failed him. He simply allowed his doubt and his desperate situation to remind him to call on Christ!
The Lord did not say,
“Whoops, too late, Buddy, you are on your own.” He reached out and He lifted Peter up. Wow! Faith always grows as we keep our eyes on Christ in the midst of storms. Faith grows as we face doubt, crying out to God who is bigger
than our circumstance, fear, and doubt. Peter got out of the boat
alone. I wonder if at least one disciple had gotten out with him, if they
could have encouraged each other to keep their eyes on the Lord. I wonder
if they didn’t end up feeling a bit jealous of Peter’s walk on that sea!
I feel sad for the disciples remaining in the boat. They never had the thrill of walking on stormy water with Jesus. They never had the experience of having Jesus pluck them from the sea like Peter did. When I was a new Christian I thought the disciples who stayed in the boat were safer, and that Peter had a crazy wild streak in him.
Now my perspective is so different. For, the safest person in the violent
storm was Peter who was moving toward Jesus. The other
disciples who thought they were safe had a false sense of security in a boat which could sink. It would be safe to say in the
midst of the serious storm the disciples had the same doubts and emotions Peter had as he sank. Yet in the face of the troubling storm Peter was the
only one who asked Jesus to invite him out, demonstrating that he truly knew Jesus was his only real refuge.
I have had several friends who have gone though really rough storms--storms that would rock any
of our worlds! I hope in the midst of the storms that have blind sided them, they will be able to see the Savior and that they will be able to cry out to Him, asking to walk on the stormy sea with Him rather than sinking in doubt. For during the storms that shake security to the core, it
is in the moving toward the Savior that each of us will find security. It is in
walking hand in hand with Him that we will rise above storms, developing a core of
faith that will not be shaken. Peter's faith may have seen impetuous faith, but it was always in response to what Jesus said. I want to be a person who has the courage to step out of things that provide false security and to move toward Jesus, my true refuge
and my real safety.
