When what you don't see is actually Jesus

Good morning family of faith,

This morning I woke up so angry which lead me to prayer to find out I was actually afraid.  And God gave me this passage:

"When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified.
“It’s a ghost! ” they said, and cried out in fear.
Immediately Jesus spoke to them. “Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s You,” Peter answered Him, “command me to come to You on the water.”
“Come! ” He said.
And climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came toward Jesus.

But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid.
And beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me! ”
Immediately Jesus reached out His hand, caught hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt? ”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭14:26-31‬ ‭

If you saw a figure in your room late at night, would you be scared?  I would.  What if that figure was Jesus?  Dang.  I thought about this some more and realized that there are some fears I have that could be Jesus.

But first, before I know it's Jesus I fear it to be something that isn't Jesus.  Something bad.  Something scary.  Something like death or pain.  Something I don't want!  Like a ghost in my room!
But what if it was Jesus?
When Jesus walks by on the water the disciples don't know that it's Jesus at first.  They just see something with their eyes and they think it's a ghost!  They're going by what they see,
until they hear Jesus say
"Have courage!  It is I!"

Courage.

It's what we need when we are scared. Without courage we can't change the course of our thoughts/action to think or do any differently.
Fear cripples us into running away or avoiding something.  But courage will keep us from running or hiding.

And like Peter I find myself in his shoes quite often asking God for something to help me believe it's really Him!
That I can go towards the thing I feared because it's really Jesus in front of me!  But it don't look like Jesus!
All I feel from what I see is fear.

Courage is what i need to not run away from what looks threatening, but this courage comes from faith in Jesus.

When Peter stepped out and walked on the water he started off with His eyes on Jesus but he shifted his eyes and saw the wind and now it wasn't just the ghost-like figure that scared him but the situation was maddening!  The wind looked threatening!
Peter was defying the natural laws of gravity!  Peter was doing something that he had no mental control over.  The capacity to make sense of his situation was gone and now he looked at that- the wind- instead of Jesus and he began to sink!
He cried out to Jesus to save him, and Jesus immediately reached for Peter and said:
"I got you"? No.
Did He say "what's wrong with you?"  No.
Did He say "you suck at life". No.

Jesus said
"you of little faith, why did you doubt?"

Jesus is doing something with Peter.  He's teaching Peter how to live without fear.

Fear of what he sees or fear of the inability to make sense of things.  He's teaching Peter how to live by faith which results in less doubt and more belief in Jesus.  He diagnosed Peter's issue: "little faith"
And questions Peter to think about the "why."  The why for Peter was the winds.

This was a reminder for me that I needed to read because I woke up angry, finding out that I was afraid.  Afraid of what I saw and what I thought because of it.  The winds of doubt looked overwhelming.  And i cried out to Jesus.

If you start to drown He will catch you, but remember it's not about survival.  It's about faith in Jesus.  We are being given opportunities to take courage today.
The thing you tried to run from or avoid out of fear (fear of rejection, fear of death, fear of being treated like trash) is all the wind you see in a threatening situation.
But keep your eyes on Jesus not on the winds, because only Jesus has the power to give you everything you need.

Love you all,
Jmegrey