{"id":1166,"date":"2010-11-24T11:24:12","date_gmt":"2010-11-24T17:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/member\/?p=1166"},"modified":"2013-07-27T10:40:24","modified_gmt":"2013-07-27T15:40:24","slug":"twirl-017-112410","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/member\/lessons\/twirl-017-112410","title":{"rendered":"TWIRL 017 (11\/24\/10): Walking on Water in Recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Week In Recovery Lesson<\/span><\/h2>\n

Walking on Water in Recovery<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Now immediately Jesus had His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side. And when He sent the multitudes away, He went up to the mountain by Himself to pray. By evening, He was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea tossed by the waves, for the wind was opposing them. Now in the forth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, \u201cIt is a ghost!\u201d And they cried out for fear. And immediately Jesus spoke to them, \u201cCheer up, it\u2019s Me! Don\u2019t be afraid.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

And Peter answered Him and said, \u201cLord if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.\u201d So He said, \u201cCome.\u201d And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord save me!\u201d And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, \u201cO you of little faith, why did you doubt?\u201d And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Jesus, saying, \u201cTruly You are the Son of God.\u201d <\/span><\/strong>Matthew 14:22-33 (NKJV)<\/span><\/p>\n

I love this story. What a moment in the relationship Jesus had with Peter. We can all agree that Peter was the one that had enough faith to get out of the boat. There were two people in the Bible that walked on water. Jesus, of course, but the other person that walked on water was Peter. We often focus on the fact that Peter doubted and began to sink. We tend to forget that Peter\u2019s faith in Christ was quite impressive. Peter did indeed walk on water\u2014an impossible feat.<\/span><\/p>\n

Peter recognized that Jesus was doing something that was impossible for him to do. He could admit that it was outside of the realm of his own ability to walk on water. Peter shouted out to Jesus, \u201cIf it\u2019s You, Lord, command me to walk on the water.\u201d Peter believed that only Jesus could command the water to support his body so that he could walk on it. Jesus responded to Peter, \u201cThe water\u2019s nice, come on in!\u201d Peter committed to trusting Jesus. He got out of the boat and walked on the water. Peter did well trusting Jesus until he realized he was walking in the middle of the sea surrounded by waves blown about by boisterous winds, and he became overwhelmed by his circumstance and wavered in his commitment to trust Jesus to help him with his problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gripped by fear, Peter dropped like a rock, but Scripture assures us that Jesus was right there to catch him. As soon as Peter began to sink he reached up and Jesus caught him. He would not let Peter drown in his circumstance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is something else to think about. How far was Jesus from the boat when Peter got out and began walking on water? Jesus was far enough away that the disciples were not sure they recognized him. Remember, Peter said, \u201cIf it\u2019s you\u2026\u201d Wherever Jesus was in the sea relative to his distance from the boat, Peter walked on water to within an arm\u2019s length of Jesus. I don\u2019t know but Peter may have walked some distance before he sank and was caught. While it was definitely a teaching moment, I tend to think Jesus had a smile on his face when he said to Peter, \u201cO you of little faith, why did you doubt?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I imagine that Jesus displayed a grin, as if to say to Peter, \u201cWhat\u2019s the problem, big guy, you\u2019re only walking on water?\u201d Peter walked on water! The Bible says Jesus was received into the boat, but what about Peter? Peter walked on water together with Jesus back to the boat. I\u2019m sure Peter was still quite frightened even as he walked with Jesus back to the boat. I\u2019ll even guess that Peter hung on for dear life to the arm of Christ as they walked.<\/span><\/p>\n