Walking on water...

By this point, I'm sure everyone who reads this has heard the song "Oceans." 

And I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise my soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine

Let me preface this, and my entire life, by saying that I am indeed an incredibly unworthy person, the most unworthy, to receive the gift of salvation.  I will also take this opportunity to clarify something while we are talking about salvation.  I believe in the God of the Bible.  The God who created everything.  I believe in Jesus Christ.  I believe that Jesus is the son of God, fully God and born into this world to die as a man on the cross and pay the price for my sin that I could never be equipped to pay for myself.  I believe Jesus rose from the dead and is Heaven preparing a place for me, even me...I also believe that God sent the Holy Spirit so that we could have the very presence of God with us always.  I believe that faith in Jesus is the only way to Heaven and I am thankful that He is perfect in my place because He knew I could never be perfect on my own.  Okay, now we can move on :) 

We all know the story of Jesus walking on water, but just in case here is the meat of it.

Matthew 14

²⁵ Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. ²⁶ When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

²⁷ But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

²⁸ “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

²⁹ “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

³¹ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”


I may be the only one, but I have usually looked at this verse with the "when you are in trouble, look to God or you will sink" viewpoint and, obviously, clinging to God during the trials of this life is exactly what you should do.  The last time I thought of this, though, I thought about it in a slightly different way.  Pastor Keith (our pastor, who by the way is super great and who you might hear me refer to in the future as PK) talks about seeing everything in our life filtered through the Word of God, seeing things with an eternal viewpoint.  Maybe we need to go ahead and move past the "woe is me" stage of our walk and get on with it....get on with being refined by the fires of this life and not consumed by them.  Being made into something wonderful, something more Christ-like.  I don't know about you, but I don't want to go through my life just bouncing from struggle to struggle...praying to just keep my head above the waves.  When He calls me out on the water I want to RUN to Him! Run to the One who has saved my soul and the One who can make my life worth something.  Maybe the waves we are trying not to sink into are just the things of this world that want to keep us bogged down and distracted.  Money, having the best of everything and most of everything, how we look to other people, etc...maybe those are the waves we need to be walking on and not sinking into.  Maybe it is "you of little faith, why did you doubt that I was enough to sustain you."  We need to be living a life of purpose, not existance.  And perhaps if our eyes are fixed on Jesus there would be no storm in the first place sometimes.  Now, let me toss in here that I believe God blesses His people and that there is absolutely nothing wrong with having nice things or having money.  But...how do we live our lives...how are we trying to show Jesus to a sad and dark world...Do we give when God tells us to give of our time, our money, our talents...(do we even hear Him when He tells us these kinds of things).  This is probably just for me y'all and I'm okay with that. :) 


I will call upon Your name, Jesus, because it is Your name that heals the sick, raises the dead, makes the demons flee, and saves the lost. 
And with Your help I will keep my eyes above the waves of this world and focused on the things that matter to You.
When oceans rise my soul will run to Your embrace as it is in You that I find rest when I am weary, where I am safe from all attacks of the enemy, and where I am renewed to live a life worthy of my calling.
For I am Yours and You are mine.