Confidence In Who?

I learned something the other day. After reading the story of Peter walking on water all my life I realized that I had missed something. Remember the story? “During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to the, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. ‘It’s a ghost,’ they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.’ ‘Lord, if it’s you,’ Peter replied, ‘tell me to come to you on the water.’ ‘Come,’ he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat and walked on the water to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’” Matthew 14:25-31

I had thought that Peter’s faith was lacking in the power of Jesus, but in reality his lacking faith was in himself. He didn’t believe he could walk on water. He had allowed fear to take away the miracle that Jesus was giving to him. He had lost confidence in himself. He knew Jesus could do it…he just didn’t think he could.

Jesus wants His followers to live a confident life here on earth. He told us things like: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7 “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20 “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.” Matthew 18:18,19 “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Matthew 21:22

Seems like Jesus wants us to live a life that brings Him glory and shows the world around us the power of God working in us.

John puts it this way: “This is the assurance we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him.” 1 John 5:14,15

Do we live like this…confident in God and His anxiousness to bless us?

We read in Hebrews: “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:16

We have a wonderful, loving God who wants to save us and forgive us. AND, we have a God who wants us to have confidence in ourselves to be about His work here on earth.

Chad McComas writes from Medford, Oregon.