Friday, March 19, 2010
Spectacular Failure
And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.
—Matthew 14:31-32
Have you ever stepped out in faith, lost your nerve, and started to sink? We all will have lapses of faith. We all will have those moments where we are not sure of what we are doing. It is not all that unusual. So what should we do when this happens? We should call out to Jesus.
When Peter stepped out in faith at Jesus' command and began walking on water, fear set in and he began to sink. So he cried out to Jesus, and the Bible tells us that "immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?' " (Matthew 14:31).
Notice that Jesus did not say, "Hey, you made your bed. Sleep in it. You had to be out there doing this crazy thing. It's your own fault." No, that is not what happened. The Bible says that immediately Jesus reached out. In the original language, the two words, "little faith" are one word. There is almost the idea of affection in the term used here, almost like a nickname—Littlefaith. It's as though Jesus were saying, "Come on, man! You were doing so well! Why did you doubt?"
Then Jesus lifted him up, and they walked on water again. We don't read that the storm stopped until they reached the boat. It was still raging. But Peter had his focus back, and with his eyes on Jesus, he was once again able to do the impossible.
We should never doubt our beliefs and believe our doubts. Instead, we should believe our beliefs and doubt our doubts. Peter did fail. But it was a spectacular failure. And if you are going to fail, then this is the way to do it.
Copyright © 2010 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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