 Jesus said this several times to the disciples but on this occasion in Matthew 14 it was when Jesus walked on the water. When the disciples saw him they were terrified because they thought he was a ghost. Then Peter asked if he could walk on water too. Jesus said "sure, come on," so Peter got out of the boat and started walking on water too. He was doing great until he took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the wind and the waves then started sinking. Jesus said, "Your faith is small. Why did you doubt?" I found it interesting that Jesus never told Peter to get out of the boat, it was Peter's idea. Initially he had faith, then he got distracted and started to doubt and fear.
What is your walking on water experience? What did you want to do for him until you thought about the logistics? What passion did you have until you were crippled by self doubt and fear of failure? What project has God put on your heart that you forgot about because you got busy and distracted? It doesn't have to be something big - it could be a weekly prayer meeting with some Christian friends, a blog sharing your faith journey, volunteering at kids church, writing some music for God... I started this blog nearly five years ago because God put it on my heart. I had feelings of self-doubt, a bad case of imposter syndrome and was afraid of failing. But I kept my eyes on Jesus and not on the doubts and fears. I have just finished writing a book that will hopefully be printed by October this year. I have constantly had to keep my eyes on Jesus though that process. The waves of insecurity, self-doubt and fear of failure continue to roll around me but I'm keeping my eyes on him!  Psalm 23:6 says, Surely your goodness and love will be with me all my life. And I will live in the house of the Lord forever.
The first five verses of Psalm 23 are about the goodness of God. 1 - God gives us everything we need 2 - God gives us rest and peace 3 - God gives us strength and leads us on the right path 4 - God is with us in difficult times and comforts us 5 - God blessed us with more than enough Verse six emphasises this by saying that God’s goodness and love will be with us all our lives. David reminds us that we will live in his house for eternity. He mentions traveling through a dark valley and enemies in this Psalm, indicating that there will be difficult times in our lives. But no matter what difficulties we face, it’s not worth comparing to the great joy we will experience in eternity with God. Romans 8:18 says, We have sufferings now. But the sufferings we have now are nothing compared to the great glory that will be given to us. So, in a nutshell, God is good, even when life is not. Eternity with God will be worth the pain.  This might seem a random verse to pick, but let me explain. Thousands of people had followed Jesus to hear his teaching. When it was getting late the disciples told Jesus to send the people away so they could go to the surrounding towns to get some food (they were in the countryside). Instead, Jesus told the disciples to feed the crowd. They found five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus told the disciples to bring the food to him. Spoiler alert - Jesus said grace, divided the bread and fish up and fed more than 5000 people with it. Then the disciples collected twelve baskets of leftovers.
I chose verse 18 to reflect on this week because I believe that Jesus asks us to give him what we have, just like he asked the disciples to give him what they had. This works on several levels:
CHALLENGE: What gifts and talents could you use for Jesus? This is a long video but there are three great testimonies so it's worth watching.  Let's break this down into three parts. You prepare a meal for me in front of my enemies. God is our provider, even in times of trouble or hardship. God doesn't necessarily take the threat or hardship from us but provides for us while we're in the middle of it.
You pour oil of blessing on my head. In Old Testament times a host sometimes anointed the heads of his guests with oil as a mark of respect. This would have been like a perfume or ointment. Not only does God provide for our needs, but he blesses us with other good things too. You give me more than I can hold. He isn't the God of just enough, he is the God of more than enough. A life following Jesus is full of peace, love, joy and hope despite our troubles. As Jesus said in John 10:10, But I came to give life - life that is full and good. |
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