31 Days of Fear{less}: In My Weakness, He is Strong

Let's spend some time today talking about a man named Peter. Peter was a disciple of Jesus, so that means that he was a great fear{less} Christian, right? Let's take a look at a story where Peter walks on the water to meet Jesus. Matthew 14:22-33 reads,

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.”

Peter had a choice: he could choose to doubt or he could believe. He decided to doubt- which I think we can learn a lesson from. I think sometimes we like to look at this story at first glance and think, “If that was ME, if Jesus told ME to walk on water, I totally wouldn’t doubt. I'd never do that. I’d walk right up to him.” But, I think if we think for another minute, we’d realize that we’d probably do the same thing. 

I would guess that each of us has had a moment in our lives where we didn’t fully trust God. That we doubted that he was truly at work for “the good of all who love God and are called according to His purpose”. But, these moments aren’t all that bad- as long as long as we don’t use them as an excuse to flee from God and his call to our lives. We can’t forget the end of Peter’s story! After Jesus rebuked Peter for his doubt, ALL of the people in the boat WORSHIPPED Jesus and saw that he was the Son of God! This was before Jesus said anything about being the Son of God. This is before His divinity was common fact. This was before the crucifixion. In Peter’s weakness, God was made strong. In Peter's weakness, God received the glory. In Peter's weakness, the power of God was shown even more.

When I look back at my faith journey, I can’t help but notice that it’s the moments when I’m at my weakest- when I can’t see how things are going to possibly work out good- that I can see God’s strength the most. It’s in these times that God gets the glory, because I can’t try and claim any for myself. When I look back, I can’t help but see how God was at work- even in the darkest of times. In my weakness, his glory is made oh-so-strong.