Faith or Fear? - Part Two (Walking on Water)

Do we ever look at how bad a situation is to determine if God is able to or is willing to be with us and deliver us? I think many times we do but I have never found a scripture to back up that kind of philosophy. God loves to show Himself strong on our behalf. He is God after all!! For me, one of the most discouraging and encouraging scriptures in the Bible is Matthew 13:58 which says, "Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief."   It is discouraging because the people who knew Jesus best didn’t believe in Him and yet it is encouraging because it compels me to believe…I mean really believe! I don’t want God to NOT do something He was willing to do because I couldn’t seem to muster up enough faith to trust Him. Let’s remember that in Matthew chapter 14, the storm was raging when Peter stepped out of the boat!
When God calls us to do something, don’t let fear (fear of what others may think, fear of failure, etc.) keep us from being obedient. Fear (which is an emotion) and faith (which is an action) can co-exist. Joshua 1:5-9 is where God encourages Joshua to be strong and very courageous.  He tells him this three times in these five verses alone!  That tells me that Joshua was very afraid and needed this encouragement from God in order to do His will.  Sometimes we are afraid but if we say, God, I choose to trust You in spite of my fear...that is faith!  We need to remember that faith is not a feeling but it is an action!  It is how we live our lives.

Is stepping out of our comfort zone worth the risk? Well, if we don’t we can become indifferent to the call. Many times, indifference is a gradual process…’a slow fade’ as the Casting Crowns song puts it. It doesn’t happen overnight, but as we allow ourselves to resist the call…the call becomes more and more faint until it is such a low whisper, it can be easily not heard in our busy lives. If we don’t step out, we become failures because we did nothing when we had the opportunity to do something great. But if we do step out, our faith will grow. Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

So let’s look for opportunities to trust God and see what happens!