Peace Wk 2: Find your Footing
Things to note:
Main text: Matthew 14:22-33
This is part 2 of a 4 part study. To read part 1 click here to jump to part 3 click here
Video Message can be found on Youtube @genuineflow
Counterintuitive is the word I would use to best describe peace. We commonly confuse peace with perfection and imagine the perfect scene with the perfect backdrop, perfect view, and perfect circumstance as the ideal experience of peace. Peace is standing in the eye of the storm and feeling the wind breeze along your skin. Counterintuitive. Intuition would have you rush out of the storm and find another way to not cross paths with potential danger. Jesus on the other hand wants us to stand in the storm with Him and know that it is Him holding us up. Storms are not cruel punishment for being human. One definition I found for storms is that they are a violent atmospheric disruption. Disruption is defined as a disturbance or problem that interrupts an event, activity, or process or radical change to an existing industry or market due to technological innovation.
I didn’t know the true weight of a storm until my mom got sick. But can I tell you that right in the eye of that storm I experienced God’s peace in a life-altering way? To physically feel His presence cover me like a weighted blanket is a moment in time I pray to never forget. And I wonder if Peter had walked through that storm could it have equipped him to walk through the much larger storm that was just ahead? Jesus told Peter that he would deny Him 3 times and Peter was certain he would do no such thing but we saw his weakness (Luke 22). Peter was great at being bold but then cowering to the weight of distraction and distress. Jesus knew this about him and perhaps knew that the chaos of the arrest would simply be too much for Peter to withstand. Just as Jesus called him for victory he also prepared him for failure and Peter's life ended with an imperfect track record and a steady heart understanding what it means to truly trust God.
The last of Peter’s written words can be found in 2 Peter 3: 17-18
“Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”
Peter wasn’t just preaching what he thought sounded good, he was preaching what he knew. Do not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. That fall was personal because drowning in a raging sea is quite the experience as you can imagine. I almost drowned when I was six years old and to this day I can recall the feeling of the water rushing over my head. To this day. I doubt there will come a point when I can’t recall that moment as if it were happening in the present time. So for me, I also can’t imagine Peter forgetting his time in the water either. Yet he walked with the Lord long enough to turn his failure into faith and leave us with an encouraging word strong enough to endure through generations.
Peace is so much more than the lilies and bubble baths we keep trying to fathom it to be. Peace is finding the still place in your heart that knows God is genuinely there. His care for you is deep and real. More so than you can even imagine. Peace is finding your footing in the storm and knowing who to call out for when the winds become too much for you to bear. God did not mock Peter for His failure instead He challenged him and gave him a beautiful testimony that he used to help spread the gospel and plant the seeds of the early church.