Reading: Matthew 14:22-36

The trust lessons continue with the disciples. They learned to trust God to meet their needs individually and to meet the needs of other individuals when they were sent out to heal and preach. They learned to trust God to meet needs corporately, in the miracle of feeding the 5,000 through them as a team. What could be next on their trust expedition?

Jesus asks them to get in a boat and go to the other side while He sent away the multitudes and went up a mountain to pray. The weather became stormy and they were alone, when they thought they saw a ghost walking on the water straight toward them!

Now wait a minute – didn’t Jesus just use them to heal? Didn’t He just do a miracle and feed 5,000-plus people through them? He can’t be trusted for the storms in life? Jesus comes in the midst of their storm and what do they do? They cried out in fear!

However, Peter catches on and asks Jesus to confirm that it’s Him by helping Peter walk through the storm with Him. Fear makes us cry, while faith makes us try. Faith takes steps forward. When Peter stepped out of the boat, he stepped out of his comfort zone. He did great until he took his eyes off of Jesus, and went back to trusting his intellect.

Though Peter didn’t keep walking on the water, he continued to trust Jesus, who rescued him. Peter learned to trust God while his faith grew. Jesus asked Peter, “Why did you doubt?” He said Peter had little faith, but where did that leave the others who never got out of the boat?

When they got back to the boat, the storm stopped and they all worshipped Him, knowing that they could trust God through their storms. Are you going through a storm in your life right now? Don’t look for ghosts; look for Jesus and you’ll have an opportunity to walk through it together with Him.