Psalm 146:2 "I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live."

Monday, May 28, 2012

Don't Look At The Waves

Hi Everyone,
 I've been thinking about many things since the blog post that I put up a week ago.

Matthew 14:22-31
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?”

Not trying to take the passage out of context or anything but I have a thought. It is so easy for us to look at the wind and the waves around us instead of keeping our focus on Christ. We  can become afraid and sometimes doubtful. When the circumstances of our lives or the lives of those we love become challenging and "stormy," it sometimes becomes a temptation to simply look at the trial in front of us, and we so easily forget that Christ is with us in the middle of the storm.

Our focus really can only be on one thing at a time. Either we are looking at the wind and the waves of our trials, or we are looking to Christ in the midst of them----and once we take our eyes off of Him, it doesn't take long before we find ourselves sinking--maybe in an ocean of anxiety or fear. But He reaches out His hand to rescue us--and turn our eyes back to Him.

As we keep our eyes upon Him, casting our cares upon Him, we find that he may not always calm the storm of the circumstances going on around us (although He certainly can and sometimes does), but what He does do is calms the storm in our hearts with a peace that passes all understanding. It is a peace that doesn't always make sense in the middle of what we are facing, but it is very real.

                                           (Photo from www.freefoto.com )

May you rest in Him today with your eyes fixed upon Him---no matter what you are facing.

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