Please read Matthew 14:22-33

The feeding of the 5,000 (or more like 10,000) had just been completed.

Jesus needed to be alone to pray. He sent the crowds away and ushered his disciples into a boat to cross the sea.

What he had done just a day or two before, he does again. He wants to be alone to pray and reflect and meditate.

This is one message we could receive from this passage. Even Jesus needed to rest, speak with God and listen. Yes, even Jesus.

There is life restoring power when we step aside, find a “secret place” and spend time with God.

While he prayed, a storm — one of the storms that could descend on boaters quickly — was tossing and bouncing their little boat and they were afraid. Legitimately afraid.

Jesus does a strange thing. After feeding an unbelievable number of people from five loaves and two fishes, the text says he walked on water out toward the boat.

I must admit, my reaction would have been the same as the disciples. I would have been more terrified of seeing Jesus walk on top of the water in a storm, than I was terrified of drowning. “It’s a ghost,” some said.

Then Jesus said, as he often did, “Do not be afraid.”

While the legitimacy of Jesus actually walking on water without a life preserver or water wings need not be questioned, I think we are best served to understand the weather phenomena as a metaphor regarding the personal storms of life we experience and Jesus coming to relieve our fears.

That is the point, don’t you think?

When we become afraid of trouble, Jesus comes in a most remarkable way, through prayer and meditation, to relieve our fears.

When Peter asked for help walking on the water, he began to sink. His faith was weak and he needed Jesus help and cried,
 “Lord, save me,” a prayer which Jesus answered quickly.

Isn’t that our prayer too? Simple, short, to the point. “Lord, save me.”

Seek Jesus in your life storms. He comes to save us. That is the work he was sent to do. He is good at it.

In the end, may we too proclaim, as did the disciples, “Truly, you are the Son of God.”

Moving to the deeper places,
Jeff