Lesson of Peter's Walk on the Water

"And Peter answered him and said, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” And he said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water. But when he saw the boisterous wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, “Lord, save me.” {Mt 14:28-30}

 

THE MIXED CHARACTER OF THE BELIEVER’S EXPERIENCE is very palpably suggested to us here.

Peter was undoubtedly a bold believer in Jesus Christ. 

He addresses his Master devoutly, calling him “Lord”—a name of

reverence, the use of which revealed the change that had been made in his character, and the obedient spirit it had produced. But the misgivings implied in that “if”—“if it is you”—savors rather of unbelief, and yet we find this hesitancy immediately followed by an expression of such strong confidence that we marvel at the request he uttered, “Command me to come to you on the water.” Then, cheered by the Lord’s prompt answer, “Come,” we find him showing courage by descending from the vessel, setting foot on the sea, and actually walking on the water. 

 

His valor, however, soon evaporates; for “when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid.” The faith that buoyed him up gave place to a fear that bowed him down. He who was walking the liquid wave one instant is sinking beneath the surge the next. 

Q: And is this not a common experience? 

Q: Are all God’s people so subject to changes; alternating between calm trust and cowardly fear? 

 

Our trophies are never won without troubles.......often have to engage in such terrible struggles against inbred sin, and to endure such severe pressure from troubles without, that he is constrained to cry out, “Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”  

One day you may be on Tabor’s summit witnessing your Master’s transfiguration, and another day you may be in the Valley of Humiliation, groaning in spirit, humbled and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow. 

 

Our way to heaven is uphill and down dale. 

Our life is made of chequered materials; it is not all of one fabric. Sometimes full of hope we bound forward with elastic step; immediately the sun ceases to shine, the big rain drops fall, the vapors rise, and we sit down with folded arms and fixed eye, wearing a sad, leaden cast. 

As in our experience, so in our nature, good and evil meet, but cannot blend; they are at constant variance."

Charles Spurgeon