Please read Matt 14:22-36 before reading this post
There are any number of tests Peter could have given this potential ghost walking on the water that wouldn’t have put his own life on the line. Surely that took above average faith, yet Jesus said otherwise.
Any fisherman worth his salt is an excellent swimmer, and would likely trust his skill against even the wind and waves of that night. Peter, in the middle of such circumstances, trusted not his own skill but the promises of His Lord. Hardly one Christian in a thousand has the faith to so quickly lean on God, yet Jesus denounces his lack of faith.
From the passage, Peter clearly doubted Christ, but in what way? He put his life on the line and asked for a miracle, that takes faith and trust. When things got out of control, he ran straight to Christ, that takes even more faith and trust. What did he doubt?
He doubted that Christ was in control. He doubted that Christ was the God of nature, that the wind and rain obeyed only him. That storm didn’t will itself to be, Christ willed it to be. It was at all times completely subject to him. There was nothing to fear, for a storm has no more power over itself than a quiet brook.
Peter was never outside the protection of Christ. It was no more a miracle for Peter to walk on the water than for the boat to float, both happened only by the will of God.
The miracle here is not that Peter walked on the water, its not even that the God whom nature obeys has given us the ability to doubt him. The miracle here is that even though we doubt this God, he allows us to cry out to him, and he saves us.
Posted with : The Way