{"id":1529,"date":"2022-04-01T08:39:21","date_gmt":"2022-04-01T12:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1529"},"modified":"2022-04-01T08:40:26","modified_gmt":"2022-04-01T12:40:26","slug":"peter-sinks-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/01\/peter-sinks-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter Sinks Down"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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For the four weeks leading up to and going beyond Easter, let’s take a look at the life of Peter.  Because he\u2019s so often at the center of both the brightest and darkest moments in the Gospels, he has always been a source of hope and inspiration for those endeavoring to follow Jesus.<\/em>
 <\/em>

\u201cBut when he saw the wind, he was afraid\u201d (Matthew 14:30). 
 
Over the years, countless sermons have taken shots at Peter.  They usually include lines like this: \u201cHe bravely stepped out of the boat and began walking.  But then he took his eyes off Jesus \u2013 that was his big mistake! \u2013 and began to focus on his circumstances.  Thus the poor man began to sink.\u201d  This observation implies that the preacher, under the same circumstances, would never have gotten his ankles wet. 
 
Let\u2019s do a reality check.  There isn\u2019t a preacher in the world who has ever done what Peter did.  Peter actually walked on water<\/em>. 
 
When the day comes that you finally get to be a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire<\/em>, and the final question is, \u201cAccording to the Bible, how many people have walked on water?\u201d please remember that the answer is two<\/u><\/em>.  Jesus and Peter both walked on the Sea of Galilee.
 
Peter may not have walked a mile, but exactly how many steps have any of us taken? 
 
It\u2019s easy to relate to Peter\u2019s surge of fear.  Taking a giant step for God \u2013 making a personal decision that takes me well out of my comfort zone \u2013 does not automatically eliminate that all-too-human response.  In his book If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat<\/em>, John Ortberg devotes an entire chapter to the fact that faith and fear go together like macaroni and cheese. 
 
Columnist Dave Barry observes, \u201cAll of us are born with a set of instinctive fears: of falling, of the dark, of lobsters, of falling on lobsters in the dark, of speaking before a Rotary Club, and of the words, \u2018some assembly required.\u2019\u201d  Ortberg recounts the story of a friend who was terrified just thinking about having a conversation with an intimidating person.  He said to his wife, \u201cMy hands are getting wet.\u201d  A while later he noted, \u201cNow my mouth is getting dry.\u201d His wife came up with the perfect solution:  \u201cWhy don\u2019t you just lick your hands?\u201d 
 
The issue isn\u2019t whether we are afraid.  All of us face fears.  The issue is whether or not we will give fear the permission to write the next chapter of our lives.
 
Fear is the number one reason that people struggle to obey God.  Our theology may be spot on.  In our heads we may know that we serve a God who will meet all our needs.  But when it\u2019s time to walk away from the job that is paying our bills but deceiving our customers; when it\u2019s way past time to abandon a soul-crushing addiction; when the moment has arrived to go out on a limb and be lavishly generous with our money, we hesitate.  We see the waves and the wind, and we remember reading somewhere that the Sea of Galilee is 140 feet deep.  
 
When fear is granted the upper hand, for all intents and purposes we become atheists.  We live as if <\/em>God isn\u2019t even there. 
 
What does Jesus say about this? 
 
As he approaches the disciples\u2019 boat during the fourth watch (approximately 3:00 am), he says something amazing: \u201cTake courage!  I AM.  Don\u2019t be afraid\u201d (Matthew 14:27).   
 
A number of English Bible translations render that verse somewhat differently:  \u201cTake courage!  It is I.\u201d  But in the Greek, Jesus literally says, \u201cI AM.\u201d  There\u2019s no way this is accidental or incidental.  \u201cI AM\u201d is how God identifies himself in the Old Testament.  God tells Moses that his personal name is Yahweh, which means essentially, \u201cI am who I am.\u201d 
 
In the middle of the storm, Jesus is telling us who he is.  He is declaring why he can be trusted.  He is God \u2013 the God who rules the cosmos, the winds, and the waves.
 
\u201cI AM\u201d is the God who has final authority over your looming MRI, your impending final exams, your disagreeable boss, your confidence-shattering bank statement, and your grown child who just said she never wants to see you again. 
 
How are we going to confront the fears that keep us from obeying God?  The answer is to learn from experience<\/em> that Jesus is who he claims to be.  That will require a series of steps and failures, steps and failures.  Like Peter, we will sometimes find ourselves sinking beneath the waves.  And like Peter, we will cry out for help.  But also like Peter, we will live to (try to) trust Jesus again. 
 
Personally experiencing God’s provision is the fundamental way to grasp that our Lord will not let us down.
 
One way or the other, our lives are being changed \u2013 either by trusting God or by not trusting God. 
 
After Jesus rescues Peter and returns him to the boat, Matthew adds this final line: \u201cThey worshiped him, saying, \u2018Truly you are the Son of God.\u2019\u201d  But which of the disciples know by experience<\/em> that Jesus is the Son of God?  Not the boat potatoes.  Peter alone knows the degree to which Jesus can be trusted \u2013 because Peter alone courageously submitted his faith to a real-world stress test. 
 
What about Jesus\u2019 very public reprimand?  He asks Peter, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you keep trusting?\u201d
 
Only the athlete in training hears the harshest words from the coach \u2013 words that will shape what happens tomorrow.  Notice that Jesus has nothing to say to anyone else in the boat.  That\u2019s because they didn\u2019t go out for the team.
 
Peter may have put himself in a position to fail. 
 
But he also gave himself a matchless opportunity to grow.
 
By God\u2019s grace, may we do the same this weekend.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the four weeks leading up to and going beyond Easter, let’s take a look at the life of Peter.  Because he\u2019s so often at the center of both the brightest and darkest moments in the Gospels, he has always been a source of hope and inspiration for those endeavoring to follow Jesus.  \u201cBut when he saw the wind, he… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[205,421,141],"class_list":["post-1529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fear","tag-peter","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1529"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1532,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1529\/revisions\/1532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}