Peter was doing just fine. He was out of the boat walking on water. It really wasn’t his idea to do this but when he saw Jesus water-walking he asked if he could do it too and Jesus replied, “Come on!” So here he was walking across the surface of the lake!
It had been a crazy day of ministry for Jesus and His disciples. Early in the day Jesus had found out that Herod had beheaded John the Baptist and immediately He wanted to find a place where He could rest and escape the crowds, who followed Him everywhere. Jesus finally got away and spent time alone in prayer but when He returned to the disciples, He found not only His twelve friends but a huge crowd of ten to twelve thousand. Mark 6:44 says there were about five thousand men—and that didn’t include women and children.
Having compassion on the people, Jesus instructed His disciples to feed them. The disciples responded in a classic manner: “Send them away because there is no food here.” But Jesus insisted, “You feed them” (Mark 6:37). Searching around, the disciples came up with a total of five loaves of bread and two small fish. Jesus took what they had, prayed over it, and began to break it up and put it in the baskets each of the disciples held. The disciples then began to distribute the food and the miracle was on. Five loaves and two fish miraculously became more than enough for the whole crowd. Talk about an electric miracle atmosphere!
As soon as dinner was over Jesus instructed His disciples to get into a boat and go ahead of Him to the other side of the lake. The disciples headed out across the lake and ran right into a storm. Jesus, aware of what was happening, decided to join the disciples by walking toward them on the water. While the disciples had great respect for the water, they had never seen anyone walk on top of it before. Thinking they were seeing a ghost, they cried out in terror, but Jesus calmed their fears by shouting, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid” (Mark 6:50).
Peter then asked Jesus to let him come to Him (Matthew 14:28) and based on the Lord’s affirmative response, he got out of the boat and began to walk on water. Everything was going fine until Peter noticed how strong the wind was and how big the waves were. He became fearful and began to sink and Jesus immediately grabbed him and said, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31).
Learning to deal with doubt is very much a part of our journey of faith and Jesus assisted Peter in his journey by helping him understand why this happened. Jesus knew that because Peter’s attention had been diverted from his goal, he had started to sink. As long as Peter kept his attention primarily focused on Jesus and not on the raging storm, he was fine. The word doubt in Matthew 14:31 means “to stand divided.” Jesus said a man can only serve one master, not two, and if a kingdom or a house is divided it will not stand (Luke 11:17). Jesus was telling Peter that he could not have divided attention.
All of us have to deal with doubt. Situations and questions will arise that we have never been confronted with before. Storms will develop and valleys will confront us and some of the elements of the storms will be very challenging to our walk of faith. The wind and the waves will blow and assault us with ferocity and doubt will try to make an appearance.
Doubt not only comes from outside forces but also from within us. Any part of our life that is not fully committed to Him is an area from which doubt can arise. Peter got into trouble because he allowed fear to become the breeding ground for doubt and it nearly sank him.
How do we deal with doubt and stay in the journey?
Here are a couple of suggestions to assist you in dealing with doubt.
1. Make sure that Jesus Christ is the center of your attention; He must be the priority in your life. Hebrews 12:2: “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” The word looking here signifies “undivided attention, looking away from all distractions in order to fix one’s gaze.” Is Jesus first in your life?
2. Starve your doubt by feeding your faith. Regular (daily) intake of God’s Word does a lot to keep doubt under control. If doubt begins to take hold in an area of your life, then it’s time to increase your feeding habits and perhaps go to some “power food” that speaks more explicitly to doubt. I regularly read the following passages (my “power food”) to encourage me and build my faith.
a. Hebrews 11
b. Psalm 23
c. Psalm 91
d. Joshua 1:1-9
e. Isaiah 43
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