Little Or More – Matthew 14:31

Matthew 14:31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

Doubting has been part of human history since the beginning. Humanity’s first disconnection from the LORD happened as a result of doubt. The snake was involved in the sowing of doubt, but the humans accepted the premise of the snake and it has been down hill since then.

Doubt has a very negative effect on so many aspects of life. Take a look at the recent election. Doubt about the integrity of the election has had catastrophic consequences. One side unwilling to even acknowledge any irregularities and the other side seeing irregularities everywhere. Doubt in the process has been the result.

Our text has the famous story of Peter walking on water to meet Jesus, who is also walking on water. Think about this. Peter took Jesus’ invitation to get out of the boat and walk, and he did!

I remember as a kid walking on water a lot. It was frozen! But we walked on it anyway. We didn’t

hold that fact against it. Frozen ponds and rivers were our winter playgrounds.

But these two didn’t walk on frozen water. Remember, there was a storm on the lake and they were pounded by the waves. Not ice.

So how did Peter do it? I think perhaps a better question is, why didn’t the other disciples jump at the chance to walk on water? I would love to do that! They instead stayed in the boat, the very same boat that was being smashed by the waves. They stuck with what they knew, even though it was dangerous. Peter stepped out.

Peter might have had “little faith” in this situation, but he had more faith than all the other disciples. He had taken Jesus at His word and left the relative safety of the boat and stepped on the water.

I can almost hear a bit of disappointment in Jesus’ voice. “You took those first three steps and I thought you would continue. You almost made it!”

Remember when you have seen a small child take their first steps. The anticipation of the adults. The willing of success. The elation if they make it to the open arms. But then the stumble happens after three steps. “Ahhhh.” Then come the encouraging words. “You almost made it.”

Little faith is a good thing. Faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains, Jesus said.

The shift happened when Peter saw the wind, or perhaps it would be better to say, he saw the effects of the wind. He began to trust what he saw rather than the One he saw walking on the water, the one he saw healing the sick, feeding thousands, raising the dead.

Are we looking at the wind? Are we being swept away by the winds in our world? Or are we steadfast in our gaze, looking to Jesus the Author and Perfecter of our faith.