You know how sometimes wounds don't hurt until you rub salt or medicine over it? I think that's how God works sometimes. When it hurts like hell it's because He's bringing attention to wounds we've ignored for a while, and He's trying to tell us: hey, lemme heal you. And we can struggle all we want because it's gonna HURT, but we all know nothing good comes easy. I just hope and pray we learn to embrace pain for the sake of restoration. For the sake of restoration, but sometimes we are so comfortable in our state of pain, aren't we? Habits are toxic. "Do you think anything will change after this?" "Honestly, no." "Maybe years of reinforcement has made you believe that things will never change, but as long as you don't believe in that possibility, you will never move past it." But if your whole life has trained you to expect things like that, when your entire mechanism has been preparing you to counter the effects of these bad situations, how will you ever learn otherwise? How will you ever accept another route out? We deserve the love we think we deserve. And so we constantly shut ourselves out. She will revert back to her old ways, just wait and see. And so we constantly expect another breakdown, another blowup. Habits are toxic, and aren't we creatures of habit? How do you break through that glass ceiling that's been hanging over your head for all these years? Not by our own strength, but by God's. He says that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. He didn't mean that it's impossible for the rich to go to heaven (me thinks), but that with man it is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. Who can thaw hearts and restore our spirits? Nobody but God.
This is from today's devotion, Jesus Calling:
My face is shining upon you, beaming out peace that transcends understanding. You are surrounded by a sea of problems, but you are face-to-face with Me, your Peace. As long as you focus on Me, you are safe. If you gaze too long at the myriad problems around you, you will sink under the weight of your burdens. When you start to sink, simply call out, "Help me, Jesus!" and I will lift you up. The closer you live to Me, the safer you are. Circumstances around you are undulating, and there are treacherous-looking waves in the distance. Fix your eyes on Me, the One who never changes. By the time those waves reach you, they will have shrunk to proportions of My design. I am always beside you, helping you face today's waves.
Where is our focus? Now I understand why we sing, Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of Earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.
Matt 14:30-33
But when he saw the wind, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried out saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, and took hold of him, and saith unto him, O though of little faith, wherefore didst though doubt? And when they were gone up into the boat, the wind ceased. And they that were in the boat worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.
Remember that this was Peter, someone who spent days and days with Christ in the flesh. He recognised him as the Son of God, and he witnessed all the marvellous things Christ had done. Peter was the only one who answered Christ when he saw Him walking on water, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." (29). This took faith. And understanding of who Christ is. And courage. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid (30). His focus shifted from Christ, who was miraculously walking on water with all His power and might, unto the waves that surrounded him. That was when he started to sink. If Peter could fail at the sight of the waves, what more us? I love the bible because the characters are flawed and human, reminding us that there truly is nothing new under the sun. We either learn from them, or we be comforted knowing that we are just like them, that God knows the human heart through and through and knows us better than we realise. As Peter began to stumble, he cried out, "Lord, save me." (30). Even in the midst of the choppy waves and fear of death, he recognised the sovereign Lord and His power to save. Who do we call out to when we face our troubles? Do we recognise God in times of trouble? We can be quick to give Him praise when things are good, but do we recognise that He is still present in our distress? He is ALWAYS with us, in the good and bad. But sometimes the choppy waves blur our vision so much that we can't even see Him standing in the midst of our troubles. Christ was standing ON THE WATER, He was literally in the midst of the storm, the dangerous waves! When we look so much to our problems, do we sense that He is already in our problems with us calling us to trust Him? We can sit in our little sampans forever and pray and tell God to help us walk on water, to face the storms, but if we never leave our sampans and never cry out to Him to save us, or to trust that He will catch us, we will forever sit in our sampans surrounded by our issues.
The best part of this episode is when Peter cries out to Christ, IMMEDIATELY Jesus reached out His hand and took hold of him (31). He doesn't want us to fall (unless like Job la, that one different case study yah, even then He didn't intend for Job to fall but to restore Him. Another day la yah.) And Christ tells him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" (31.) Plox. If Peter could doubt, Peter, who spent days with Christ in the FLESH could doubt, what makes us so certain that we would never? Of course we would! But the important thing to remember is to always always always cry out to Christ to reach out His hand to pick us up. If not we would sink. And become beached whales.
I always wonder, why did the wind only cease when they got into the boat? Why not when Peter was about to walk on water? Isn't "Lord tell me to come walk on water with you" not enough of a statement of faith? I guess action speaks louder than words. We can say and pray and believe all we want, but if we never actually exercise our beliefs, then it is for nothing. Storms are good, I believe. Choppy waters are good. Because how else would you exercise faith? And I say exercise because I believe it's like a muscle. God will always throw us challenges to exercise this muscle so we continue to grow. Embrace the storms, yah? As much as they hurt and suck. Because at the end of the day, the storms will cease, and faith will level up.
As much as people think Oceans is overplayed, I definitely feel it isn't overrated. Because I whale and sea and oceans and Peter my favourite episode.