He Was Terrified and Began to Sink

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” Philippians 4:6(NKJV)

by Alexandra Copeland
When you’ve got mounting debt, broken relationships, and you feel as though you’re struggling in so many areas of your life, people will tell you all sorts of reasons why you shouldn’t mount up in faith. Some will say that you’re being tested and you should wait until God ‘gets through with you!” Other’s will say that you shouldn’t be interested in materiality or wholeness in every way, because life in and of itself is just one big struggle that you can’t surpass. The one piece of life-practice wisdom that you can glean from this is that when you’re struggling against the tide, the enemy will use every trick in the book to attack your mind.

No one can argue that when a Christian is in a blessed state, with their needs met, he or she is in an optimum position to be a blessing to others. When our resources are depleted and our spirits are low, we’re less inclined to be in tuned to the hurt of others because we’re focused primarily on fixing what ails us personally. This is the way that must of us are wired; we’re sort of self-centered in this way. Heavenly Father is a loving God. He wants us to have the most time available to pray for the sick and brokenhearted, and to spend time in fellowship with Him. God tells us in Philippians 4:6(NKJV), “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” He doesn’t want us wasting time by allowing feelings of doubt and anxiety to paralyze our walk in faith.

The thing is, sometimes when we feel we’ve gotten one thing under our belts and the sun is peeking out its head in our circumstances, something else sneaks in and levies a big wallop to our new found confidence. The enemy is going to test our faith. Heavenly Father knows exactly what you and I are made of. He made us who we are through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. He’s given us the faith of Jesus Christ. It’s a package deal that we received through the indwelling Holy Spirit. God in His infinite wisdom and foreknowledge, knows what we’re going to do way before we do it. So why would He need to test something that He already knows? It’s the enemy that tests us in an effort to steal our power and authority in the way that he stole Adam’s and Eve’s.

Like a dog sniffing for a bone, the enemy sniffs us out to see if we have fear. Fear is his territory, and the presence of it gives him an entrance to get into our grills and stir up some stuff. One of the dead giveaways of fear is our reaction to it when we’re under pressure. Fear takes us out of the supernatural realm of extraordinary possibilities through Christ, and submerges us in an atmosphere of regression, lack, and loss. Believe it or not, the latter is a place where many people feel the most comfortable, and those that are will usually not assist your efforts to put fear, doubt, and insecurity under your feet.

Putting fear, doubt, and insecurity under his feet is exactly what Peter did when he walked on water in Matthew 14. The disciples were on a boat in the middle of the sea, and there was a storm causing the boat to be tossed by the waves. They looked out and saw Jesus walking on water towards them in the midst of the storm. We would do well to remember that no matter how much the storms of life rage, our blessed Lord and Savior will rescue us time and time again. There should be little doubt in our minds that when the disciples saw the Master walking on water, it must have been the greatest thing they had ever seen.

Jesus defied the natural laws that you and I have come to know as citizens of this earthly realm. We believe our bodies to be solid mass, and natural laws tell us that a solid mass will sink in water, but Jesus would not be bound by what we think we know and see. He commanded the water and it had no other choice but to obey. When first they saw him, the disciples surmised it was a ghost. On this stormy night, they might have suspected it would be their last, and that they were being ushered into death by the aberration before them, but Jesus Christ in his miraculous glory was not an aberration of death. On the contrary, he is the beckon of light and life! He spoke words of comfort and identified himself.

Not believing their eyes, in Matthew 14:28(NKJV), Peter said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” In verse 29, Jesus answered and said, “Come.” The anointed words of our Precious Lord and Savior carried with them the faith that allowed Peter to actually walk on water. Here we have one of the most poignant examples of the power and authority that we have in Christ to put every adversity under our feet. This is a testament to the power of our faith in Christ; it will defy and nullify any and every excuse for us to fail.

As Peter took his mind and heart to levels beyond the realm of possibility, he did the one thing that many of us do when we start to really get on board with right believing. He allowed fear to enter the picture, and it caused doubt to capture his attention. Instantly he became persuaded by the harshness of the storm and could not hold on to the bliss of how love will command utter authority and power. Matthew 14:30 (NLT) tells us, “But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted.”

Make no mistake about it, we are learning through life experiences to walk with a higher level of confidence and belief in Christ than what we have had in the past. God will no doubt save us time and time again, but there will be a point in the storm when He will expect that our spiritual growth and development has cultivated a belief that moves us to trust in what we cannot see. Through the indwelling Holy Spirit, we can be assured that God did not give us a substandard faith. He gave us the stuff that Christ used.

2Peter 1:3(The Message) tells us, “Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received!” We’ve received everything we need to please God, and we know that we cannot please Him without faith. He gave it to us to put to good use—to tap into all the wonderful blessings He’s made available, so don’t allow fear to cause you to sink! You absolutely can put the circumstances of loss, lack, and defeat beneath you. If you’ll have faith, and commit to grow in Christ through good character, studying the Word, prayer, and love, you’ll walk above any situation the enemy throws your way.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.