Walking on the Water; Faith, Fear and Fulfilment

This is more than a miracle; it illustrates the life of faith. The disciples lived and acted by faith in Christ. Such people have promises from God but it does not prevent trouble. Fear and faith can exist together. They were afraid of the forces of nature, and of the supernatural when a man walked towards them on the water. Their faith was fulfilled when Jesus identified himself and told them not to fear. Peter's experience was similar. Christ's word prompted faith. Faith prompted prayer (it is natural to want to share Christ's victory over nature since that was the original state of humanity at creation). Peter only acted when Christ gave him authority - faith always operates on the basis of God's Word. But Peter remained vulnerable. His mistake was to look at the forces that threatened him rather than at Christ who was upholding him. His faith was fulfilled when Christ took hold of him. But no merely human hand could have held Peter up; he was in the hand of God and had been even when he was on his own on the water. There is such a thing as being safe in the will of God even when everything seems to threaten; or being unsafe because we are out of God's will, even though all seems to prosper. The life of faith is shown here. Someone may have have a faith of sorts, but when they think of God they are troubled. Conscience, divine holiness, and human frailty combine to frighten us. This may be our Saviour coming, but we have no way of knowing that.We must exercise faith in him even though we lack the comfort of assurance. Life's troubles may be Christ coming in blessing - but we have no comfort and have to walk in the darkness. It is similar in death.