And Peter Sank...doubt;the greatest hindrance

If there’s anything that limits the full attainment of the power or the certainty of the promises of God, its doubt, often driven by fear; this was the case in Mathew 14 v 30, the entire event started from v22 when Jesus had to send his disciples ahead of him, late into the night, Jesus went out to meet them ;when  his disciples saw him and thought it was a ghost, the cried in fear but he calm them down, but Peter said Lord if it be thee, tell me to come and Jesus said “come” . Peter stepped out in faith, he walked towards Jesus then all of a sudden, tragedy struck, Peter realized he was walking on water, his eyes were opened if you may, just like Adam and Eve in Eden, the moment they lost touch with God, their eyes were opened then they knew they were naked. Its so common for our eyes to open to reveal the worst of us, it makes me see the concept of an opened eyes as a closed spirit, in that the use of that term never seem to connote anything good other than they loss a place of excellence, so just like Adam and Eve, Peters eyes were opened and he saw the storm and Peter sank. How often do we ask the lord to bid us to come only to turn around and refocus on the little challenges around us, its good to know that Peter made progress so long as his focus was on the lord and not the storm, in fact the amazing thing is that the storm was there all the while, the bible records that there was a storm and Jesus walked towards the boat, how come all of a sudden Peter remembered that there was a storm? The point I want to make here is focus, your focus determines how long you will stay afloat in life, walking on water is a possibility so long as you are walking in the divine conditions of faith, the bible says “the that know their God shall be strong and do exploit”, it simply means that the limit of exceptional move of God you’ll see is determined by your focus or knowledge of God, knowing here connotes communion. And peter sank, we sink daily not because we sinned but because we loose focus of who promised what, its so easy to loose track of the promises of God the moment the storms buffet our ship, the moment the devil reminds us of our last fall, we give in to doubts and unbelief, that’s why we sink, not because we sinned but because we doubt, doubt is the greatest single inhibitor of progress for a should be faith driven life, doubt is the enemy within that silently seek to hinder you from walking in the fullness of the promises of God. Its also good to not that doubt often comes from fear, probably fear of failure or fear of shame, or even the unknown, fear defined as Fake Evidence Appearing Real can take hold of you and reduce the word of God to empty letters. I know people who are afraid of dying hence they don’t travel or get involved in any form of activity, I told one of them you are already dead, same goes for a lady who wont date cos she wouldn’t want to get hurt, I also tell her you are hurting already, when you let fear take hold of you, you literally become a dysfunctional person, you become paranoid, a skeptic and eventually a victim of your fears. We cannot let the devil infiltrate our lives by entertaining fear, for when fear comes in then doubt settles within. God said I am the lord, is there anything too hard for me? At times I ask my friends why don’t we see changes in our lives even when we say we believe, in the many discussions we had to understand that topic, we discovered that faith is not saying it but believing what God says and walking in it, it’s a common thing to say it but act contrary to what you profess. If you believe you are healed by God then act like you are healed, if there’s a business problem and you prayed then you should trust God and not only declare the problem is solved but act like its solved, same goes for the pretty lady looking to God for a relationship that works for a good end, you need to stop acting desperate, rest in the promises of God, he said he would not withhold any good thing from them that love him. Rest in the knowing that God is in control,theres no need to run helter skelter,let God fulfill his word and please stop trying to help God, his hands are not too short that he cannot deliver you. We need to understand that God upholds his word above his name. That said, you need to start by putting away doubt, how do you do this? by feeding on the word of God, faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God, exposing yourself to Gods word is the fastest way to validating the promises of God. And peter sank, then he cried out master save me, then Jesus reached out and held him, Jesus said oh you of little faith, why did you doubt? He doubted cos he saw the storm, my question is why did Jesus ask that question? I guess the answer is clear, true faith wouldn’t dwell on obvious crises, faith sees solutions. Jesus expects us to focus on the solution, you see we are back to the issue of focus again, friends walking with God requires focus, focus on the end, on the master, on the purpose of God, the bible records that Jesus endured the cross,dispised the shame for the joy set ahead of him, focus is the key. I pray that we would take a clue from Peters experience and work on our focus, it’s the underlining factor for the effective fulfilling of Gods promises in our lives as believers of Jesus. The word works. Halleluiah! Written by Igonoh Godwin 4/05/12