peace

for the past couple of days i have been doing my devos on peace. beth moore has given me "portraits of peace" so that i can observe the nature of God's peace and how we receive that peace. in a previous post i told you about the time where Jesus had stayed in Jerusalem for 4 days without his parents (when he was 12) and had tremendous peace. toady, i read the story about how Jesus walked on water. he had sent his disciples out on a boat while he went to a mountain side to pray by himself. it is believe that he had spent a good 3 hours praying while his disciples were on the boat fighting the storm. when he went to them (because he knew they were in distress) he didn't go run to them, he wasn't in a panic because of it, he simply walked. well, if the boat had been out there for a good 3 hours, how could he just walk to them? well he is Jesus and being the stud that he is, he walked on water. Peter began to freak out (like the rest of them) and said that it was a ghost and that if it was really the Lord, he (the Lord) would tell him to come out on the water. so Jesus did. peter began to walk straight toward Jesus and had his focus completely on Him. he began to doubt though and started to sink. Immediately, Jesus was there. He was there in an instant, no more walking.

well all know the story but what amazes me is the tremendous amount of peace Jesus had. he knew that his disciples were in trouble but yet he stayed and prayed and when he decided to leave he didn't rush to them, he walked. we see his peace in this story but we also see that as long as we are looking straight to Christ and focus on him, we can do just about anything. but once that focus slips, while Jesus' focus is still on us, and we being to doubt, that is when we start sinking. we don't have to fear though, Jesus will be there. now, we may have to wait and we may feel like we are just going to drown but Christ knows what he is doing. He may let us sit there and sink and struggle ... maybe for 3 hours.. maybe for longer but we have to have the PEACE to know that he is right there waiting for the perfect time to help us back up. so, my friends, if you feel like you are drowning and you have been there for hours, days, maybe even weeks, do not be afraid says Jesus, he is right there with a tremendous amount of peace, maybe we can learn something from him and have peace in our drowning.