Matthew 14:22-33, Matthew 16:13-20

Josiah Parr considers the purpose of stormy waters in our faith journey

Josiah Parr

We are all on a journey of faith and although we recognise that the destination is to be with our Saviour, sometimes we fail to see God in our every day life. But journey isn't just a cumulative term, it literally means your daily portion.

Journey:
1. An act of travelling from one place to another.
2. Origin Middle English: from old French jornee' aday, a days travel based on Latin diurnum " daily portion'.

So what does your journey with God look like?

God is always calling us further and deeper in relationship with him and we can see this perfectly through Peter when Jesus calls him to come on a faith journey.

'Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." "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. 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. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God." Matthew 14:22-33

It's never what you think it's going to be

At the end of high school I had lined up an internship with our sister church in Hawaii for a year. You should have seen my friend's faces, they were so envious! Everything was all ready to go until during a relaxation exercise in my drama class, I had a vision, over 45 minutes I saw things that were so exciting and so challenging that I felt that I needed to do something about it. So I emailed Hawaii (not the whole of Hawaii, just the church I was planning on interning with) and told them I wouldn't be coming.

So what next ... teaching! Seriously for the next two years of my life I studied to be a teacher.

You know what though, it wasn't teaching either. I gave up my plan to move to Hawaii, then God asked me to give up my plan to be a teacher and move to Chelmsford, Essex, UK!!

God has a MASSIVE sense of humour!

This journey with God, of stepping out to follow him is never going to be how you thought it would be.

We see this with Peter. He asked Jesus, "If it's you, bid me to come" and I guess there is always the gamble whether Jesus actually says 'yes' or 'no' or 'that's fine mate just stay in the boat', but Jesus actually says 'come'.

Just because you have a plan of where you are going, doesn't meant that you will always end up in that place.

Jesus takes us out of our depth

When Jesus calls Peter to come and step out, the seas didn't get any calmer. He bid him to come into the situation, into the mix of the winds, the waves and storm.

Often when journeying with God we step into things that initially look like problems. Sometime our theology doesn't fit with that; we assume that when we walk with God everything is going to be plain sailing. But most of the time it looks like a STORM and it's in the storm that we find our definition. Its where were find out who we are and who Jesus is in our lives.

I once heard faith being described as taking a ride on an aeroplane. You are travelling along and you start to get into a rough patch and some turbulence happens. The question is, when turbulence comes, do you jump off or do you stay on the plane until you get to the destination? For many of us, we stay on the plane. We want to get to the place we are going; there is a journey, a point to this, turbulence is only part of the journey.

Peter takes his eyes off Jesus (Mathew 14:30) and sees the waves, feels the wind and begins to sink.

His first response is "God save me from death". I think there is a lot to be said for the faith that is like 'I'm a celebrity get me out of here'. We go through a trial that we don't like and our first response is, 'Hey I'm a Christian, get me out of here!' But have you ever considered that the whole purpose of getting out of our depths, the whole purpose of the wind and the waves, is breakthrough?

It's always easier in the boat

Jesus and Peter get into the boat and all the disciples bow down and say, 'Surely you are the Christ'. It's always easier to have a revelation of Christ from the comfort of the boat. God's heart for us is that we step out of our comfort zones, step out of the boat and have a revelation of who Jesus is.

That my faith will be made stronger

If Jesus takes us out of our depth, there has to be a reason why and that reason is to make our faith stronger.

It's not until a few chapters later, in Matthew 16 that we really see the purpose of this exercise of stepping out into the wind and the waves:

'When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.' Matthew 16:13-20

Compare when Peter is sinking and saying 'save me Jesus', to when Jesus changes his name and calls him Peter and on that rock he's going to build the church. There is a strengthening that happens in our greatest moments of weakness and an acceleration of change that happens. Our faith has literally become stronger because we have experienced God in a tangible way. He not only changes Peter's name, but he tells him that he has the keys to the kingdom; authority to bind things on heaven as on earth.

Our revelation of who Jesus is in our journey will make all the difference, whether it's in stormy seas, in turbulence, or in wide open spaces where you feel like everything is fine. There is a purpose and that is for our faith to become stronger.

We may want to do more for God, but God is looking for more of us, more of our heart and more of our life. Are you willing to step out of the boat? Today, who do you say Jesus is?