Peace and Trust is Simple When We Keep Our Gaze on Jesus

Being a student is hard, but being a home schooled student in high school with a million things to do is even harder.

At the age of seventeen, I’ve come to realize two things in my life. 1.) That I really want to enjoy my life. 2.) That I can do nothing without God’s grace.

Having these two things in mind, I often wondered, why was I not feeling the peace and joy that many other Christians seemed to have? Why did I know that I was saved, but still was so stressed about so many things?

While praying to God for guidance, He led me to read the book of Matthew.

I was pretty surprised to see the story of Jesus walking on the water. This was a story I had read time and time again in church or school. What great significance did this story have? Besides perhaps the obvious, that Jesus is walking on water!

I have to admit, I felt slightly cheated—until I began reading and reading and reading. When I say reading, what I mean is instead of just taking the words in as what they looked like, I took it as a personal message.

When I began to break down each part and really study them, these black and white words on paper came alive. If you haven’t read this story for yourself, I urge you to grab the Bible and read Matthew 14: 22-23, before continuing.

This whole story was a lot for me to take in, so I decided to break it up. I looked at this through the physical or what seemed natural to me, and the through the spiritual. This part is what I think God was trying to tell me.

1. The Storm

There is a great wind tossing the boat the disciples are in. The waves are pushing against the boat, it’s very dark out, and Jesus is not with them. Adding all these things up, I can only imagine their fear. Many times, I found myself like the disciples. I was having a great wind pushing me further and further away.

My troubles kept piling up so that I could see nothing but how big my problems were. Sometimes we all feel alone, like Jesus is not with us. We may call upon God saying, “Where are you? Do you even hear me?”

But, if we continue reading, we see that the Lord who is walking on the waves is bigger than the problem. If we let Jesus in our life, He can and will trample down our troubles, insecurities, and fears.

Not only that, but He can teach us to do the same and conquer them.

2. Come Forth and Walk

Now the disciples see Jesus with their own eyes walking on the waves. What a blessing! If we were there, I’m sure all our fears would diminish in a second. Peter however, needs a little more convincing. He says, “Lord, if it you, command me to come to you on the water.”

The if in the sentence made me see that he is unsure. Peter knows however, if Jesus commands him to walk on water, it shall be done. So we see Peter get out of the boat and stand before Jesus on the water. I think we should give credit to Peter for being brave enough to do that much.

Remember the waves and winds are still blowing, but he is confident with Jesus at his side.

3. The Doubter

Peter is confident until he sees the winds. The Scripture says, “But when he saw the wind, he was afraid.” Then I noticed that Peter took his gaze off of Jesus to look at the storm. I can imagine what he was thinking. “Am I really walking on the water? No one will believe this back home. Look at the wind, it’s so strong. I hope I don’t sink!” We can see Peter’s thoughts changing from confidence to fear.

He stood on the water with Christ, but as soon as he looked at the winds and took his gaze off Jesus, he doubted. Does this tell us anything? Perhaps we find a point in our lives where we take our gaze off Jesus and do our own will.

We may not ask the Father what He thinks of something. Instead we trust our own judgment and head off.

Maybe you’re at a point in your life where you’ve taken your gaze of Christ and instead gaze upon the mountain of problems you have.

Like Peter, this will cause us to sink. I began to realize this is what I was doing.

4. “Lord, save me!”

When Peter realized he was sinking he cried out, “Lord, save me!” This is my favorite part. The Scripture tells us immediately Jesus grabbed hold of Him. When we call upon the Precious Name of Jesus, we are not disappointed.

He doesn’t put are troubles on hold. He immediately grabs hold of us. He will not let us sink in our troubles or sins.

That’s why we call Jesus our Savior and Redeemer. Whatever problems we’re facing, let us remember to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus immediately. We will be rescued from evil by the One who conquers sin.

5. “Why did you doubt?”

Jesus asks Peter a very important question. He says, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Jesus is not asking Peter, “Why did you become fearful?” He is asking Peter, “Why did you not believe in me?” Peter should have known that Jesus would never let him sink or drown. It was Peter’s own unbelief that caused him to sink. That’s why our Lord says, “O you of little faith.” The opposite of Faith is Doubt.

If I am asked if I believe in Christ, I would answer, yes. However, if I can’t give Him all of my troubles and lean on Him entirely for support, I really don’t have the belief I should. This is a false love.

Sadly, many Christians today are in this situation. We praise God at church and say our prayers faithfully, yet we are not prepared to trust Christ in our daily life. Let’s try harder to give Jesus our everything.

This includes our not so perfect side. We don’t want Christ to say to us, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

I truly believe this story is significant in the life of every Christian. It was significant in my life because it taught me to keep Jesus in every aspect of my life. Growing up home schooled, being a teenager, and living a pretty busy life can sometimes be too overwhelming.

However, when I read this story I was relieved. I realized that I no longer have to carry everything on my shoulders, but I could lean on Almighty God. My problem before was that I was trying to do everything myself. I was basically telling God, “Yeah I know You can help me, but I’ve got it.”

To speak truthfully, I wasn’t handling anything. When I realized though that God has a unique plan for my life, and knows more about me than even I do, I placed my trust in Him. That meant casting all my cares on Him who was stronger than anybody.

Now I live my life one day at a time and try not to trouble myself with future thoughts. I know God will handle everything, even if I can’t. We cannot use the excuse that Jesus does not understand. 2 Corinthians 5:21 states, “God made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Jesus traded our sin for His righteousness. Now we are once again His people. Every day we must thank God for sending us His perfect and free gift. Let’s strive to become closer to Christ in our everyday situations.

Let’s try to put God first in every area of our life. We shouldn’t know of God, but we should know God.

That way we may say without any doubt what the disciples did after they got in the boat: “Truly, you are the Son of God!”

Header photo wikemedia.org

About Rosa Younan

Hey! My name is Rosa and I’m a homeschooled sophomore! I’m also in love with anything about sports. Athleticism runs in my family. My hobbies are writing, cooking, painting, and making my family and friends laugh! The Bible is my study book, and bread and water. I love being homeschooled and think that it’s the best thing my parents did next to raising us to know God.