Fix your Gaze Upon Jesus

Matthew 14:22-33:

"22 Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. 23 And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. 24 But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.

25 Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. 26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.

27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”

28 And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”

29 So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”

31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

33 Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've been thinking about this story lately.  Peter saw his Lord coming and immediately was filled with great faith.  He stepped out on the water.  Notice at this point where his eyes are looking.  Toward Jesus.  But then what happened?

He took his eyes off of Jesus.

Oh my, the winds are great.  Oh, and the waves!  And as he began to look around him, his faith and his footsteps faltered.  He began to look around him at the things of this world, and immediately he lost his faith.  He lost his hope and sense of security.  Suddenly the wind and the waves seemed greater and more powerful than anything else.

How often are we like Peter?

We see God and we have great faith.  Our gaze is fixed steadily upon Him and we believe anything is possible.  But then (typically in our generation, this happens slowly and unconsciously) our gaze turns downward.  Look at those waves.  The wind blows so fiercely!  Our problems seem so big, and for some strange reason, our God seems so small.

We have lost our faith.  Why?  Because we turned our eyes off of Jesus.

My friends, how easy it is to allow our gaze to falter off of the King of kinds. The natural inclination of our flesh is to look at the things of this world.  But we must reject this inclination.  We must fix our eyes upon Jesus.

This is easy to think about conceptually, but what about practically?  How can we turn our eyes upon Jesus each and every day of our lives?

I've been thinking about this question a lot over the past few days, but I would like to give you a chance to think.  How do we fix our gaze upon Jesus?  You are welcome to share your thoughts below in the comments section or share privately through the "Contact" page.  I'm looking forward to hearing from you!