The Purpose of Trust
Each day begins with the a new opportunity to trust in what the Lord has planned for your life. There is a reasonable explanation for trusting God: He can see the end of the day where we can only see the moment. Yes, we can dream and hope for a great tomorrow which will bless our lives. However, putting all your trust in the Lord can secure that tomorrow no matter what the outcome.
We can look at Peter as he welcomed the invitation of the Lord to come out of the boat and walk on the water (Matthew 14:22-32). It was a matter of trust! Can I trust Him right now at this particular moment? Even though it seems to my carnal nature that what I am about to do is totally impossible, I will trust in Him. I will not lean upon my own understanding but I will lean upon the Lord, my God!
That must have been what Peter was thinking when he stepped out of the security of the physical safety of a boat into the spiritual safety of the Lord’s command. But wait a minute… Peter began to think about the the impossible not the what the Lord can do with the impossible! He can make anything that is impossible, possible, if we can just believe!
What thoughts went through Peter’s mind? His past fears, that had been imprinted in his life from childhood. Common sense states that you cannot walk on water it is not solid! Could it had been the frustrations of trying great things but they had always fallen short of the goal, way short! Then there is those ever lasting, following you wherever you go, failures. The ones that show up on a credit report, resume background checks, friends that wait for the moment to tell everyone your past mistakes. I would really hope, that what had happened to Peter, would not have happened, but it did! The one area that could have been his dilemma was that he lost focused on who had invited him into the impossible! Jesus, the Savior and Master! Yes, his downfall, no pun intended, was loosing focus on Christ and His power to sustain. Even when common sense states, “No”! The revelation sense of our own humanity is null till the Holy Spirit awakens it! As Peter began to sink into his common sense and all the negative thoughts of his life he realized that his only hope was Jesus. He must have thought: I should have trusted Him! I was out of the boat, in the water, and I started to doubt.
A point to make here is that is where most of us live in our Christianity! We have accepted the invitation we have stepped out of the security that we know into the the promise of God. Then we suddenly realize that what He called us into does not make any sense to our human nature! Of course it doesn’t, Jesus never makes sense to the human side of our life. He does make sense to the spiritual side though. Read John 15-17 and read it till you get it!
Peter was lifted up into the boat by Jesus and they continued to go forward in the direction of Calvary. So as Jesus, lifts you up out of the doubt, fear, frustration, and failures remember to keep your focus on Him! Go to your Calvary and give up that doubting human nature and embrace the spiritual life that has been provided for you, abundantly. There is a purpose to trust. That purpose is to embrace Him who will lift you up and out of the impossible into the possible. Ephe. 3:20, justa as side note.
Dennis
Remember prayer moves the Hand of God.