Philippians 4:7; Matthew 14:30; Hebrews 12:2
“The closer you live to Me, the safer you are. Circumstances around you are undulating, and there are treacherous-looking waves in the distance. Fix your eyes on Me, the One who never changes. By the time those waves reach you, they will have shrunk to proportions by My design. I am always beside you; helping you face today’s waves. The future is a phantom, seeking to spoke you. Laugh at the future! Stay close to Me.” Jesus Calling
The future is a scary place; it is full of unknowns and possibilities. Full of decisions and full of effects based on those decisions; where do I go to college, do I change careers, where is God calling me and on and on. The future is full of things that will happen either one way or another based on the path that we chose. One of the scariest things about the future is the unknown of if you made the right choice or not. Was that girlfriend/boyfriend my soul mate? Was this college the best college that I could have chosen? What am I missing by working at this job? The closer that we are in our relationship with our God, the more in tune that we are with the paths that He has planned for us. When we are close to God, we can more easily hear His voice guiding, directing our plans. When we are close to God we are more at peace with the decisions that we have. “And the pace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7 NASB. The peace of God will guard our hearts and our minds! The creator of the universe is so madly in love with each and every one of us that He will guard our hearts from things that are not beneficial to us; he will guard our minds from thoughts of inadequacy, thoughts of uselessness, thoughts of worthlessness, thoughts of “what-if”. Our God wants nothing more than for us to rest in His peace, to have peace that doesn’t make sense other than that we are in the presence of God. Our God does not want us to fear the unknown, our God doesn’t want us to fear the “what-if”. The story of Peter walking on water illustrates exactly that. Peter always get a lot of flack for sinking while he is on the water, but I feel like Peter does not get the accolades that he deserves for actually walking on water, anyways I digress.
Matthew 14 is the story of Jesus walking on water towards the boat that the disciples are in. The winds are beating the boat and tossing it around in the waves and here comes Jesus walking towards them on the water. Now if I were in that boat after spending who knows how long trying to keep a boat from capsizing and then all of a sudden the shape of human appears on the water, I can bet that I would be a little terrified. Peter takes this opportunity to call out to Jesus and to ask Jesus to bring him out of the boat. From there we all know what happens, Peter gets out of the boat, starts walking, and then sinks. End of story, right? Well not exactly. Here in West Texas we have been involved with many, many winds storms or even tornadoes but never once have I seen the wind. Now I have seen the dirt that was thrown into the wind, but never have I actually seen wind. Matthew 14:30 “But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” NASB. Now I can only imagine the joy that swept over Jesus at that exact moment when Peter cried out “Lord, save me!” That is the response Jesus had been looking for all along. That is the same response that Jesus is looking for today when we face the winds and the waves. He is looking for us to cry out to Him, “Lord, save me!” In other translations, it says that Peter took his focus off of Jesus and that is what made him aware of the wind and the waves. It wasn’t that the waves and the wind had stopped, Peter just didn’t notice them because he was so focused on Jesus. “…fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of faith, who for the joy 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 NASB When we fix our eyes upon the “author and perfector of faith” we don’t realize that the wind is blowing and that waves are crashing in around us. When we fix our eyes on the “author and perfector of faith” we are so enveloped in the presence of God that the “peace that surpasses all comprehension” is upon us.
In order for us to not fear the future, in order for us to now fear the chaos that is happening in the world around us we must be wrapped in the presence of our Lord and Savior. We must be enveloped in the love that has shown us by enduring the cross. Do you really think the same God who allowed his son to be crucified for us so that we may have the ability to spend eternity with him, would let the uncertainty of the future be what separates us from His love? I can’t believe that. Nothing in this world, nothing that Satan can throw at us can ever separate us from the love of Christ Jesus. When the future is scary, laugh at the future because you are walking with the God who created that future. Love God:Love Men
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