54 – Victory by looking unto Jesus

Matthew 14:28-31 (KJV)

“[28] And Peter answered Him and said, Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water. [29] And He said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. [30] But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. [31] And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”

This passage gives us a record of when Peter walked on water. In summary, what happened is that Jesus asked them to go ahead of Him to the next city across the sea, while He stayed back in the mountains to pray. After praying, He came to join them in their journey on the sea by walking on the water. They saw Him and were afraid, thinking it was a ghost. But He told them it was Him; and then Peter said if it is You, ask me to come. Then Jesus said to Peter: Come.

Ordinarily, Peter’s line of thought does not seem to make sense. How does asking Peter to “come” prove that it is Jesus? But there is great power and inspiration in this line of thought. Truly, if it is Jesus, then there would be power in His words, and when He says “Come”, it means Peter would receive the power to also walk upon water. Peter not only wanted to confirm that he could hear the words “Come”. He also wanted to confirm if the words had power. So when Jesus said “Come”, Peter came down from the ship and realized that indeed he could walk on the water; something that is humanly impossible (but was possible by the power in the Word of the Lord).

Notwithstanding, as Peter began to walk on the water, a choice was presented to him: look at (focus on) the boisterous waves of the sea (which probably repeatedly splashed water on his face to get his attention), or keep looking at (keeping focusing on) Jesus who said “Come”. Unfortunately, the waves got Peter’s attention, and as he began to focus on them He lost connection to the power that upheld him to walk on water, and then he began to sink, till he turned back his attention to Jesus and cried for help; then Jesus caught him and pulled him back up to walk on water to the boat.

Amazing story isn’t it? But why was it recorded in the Bible? Was it just to tell us a cool story? Probably not. Rather, it was to serve as a visual representation of how we are to advance in our Christian walk towards Christ (that is, towards experientially becoming like Christ). How? By looking unto Jesus. Hebrews 12:1-2 says: “[1] … let us run with patience the race that is set before us, [2] Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; …”. That is the way to connect with God’s power to enable you to make victorious progress in your Christian walk.

What does it mean to look unto Jesus? And how does that contrast with looking at the waves?

Simply put, looking unto Jesus means making Him your frame of reference. Psalms 16:8 says it nicely: “I have set the Lord always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved”. Setting the Lord always before you (or looking unto Jesus) means that all your opinions, perspectives, thoughts and imaginations, are derived from Him. He is the inspiration behind what you think. He is the One whose words (whose report) you believe.

The waves of the sea on the other hand represent the lies of the enemy. Isaiah 57:20 says: “But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.”. Psalm 93:3-4 says: “[3] The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. [4] The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea”. And Psalm 89:8-9 says: “[8] O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto Thee? or to Thy faithfulness round about Thee? [9] Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, Thou stillest them”. So yes, the waves of the sea represent the lies of the enemy. That is, just like the waves of the sea splashed at Peter to gain his attention away from focusing on Jesus and His Word, so also the enemy (unclean spirits) project lies into your mind to convince you to believe something different from what the Word of God says about you, so that your focus is taken away from Jesus (who should be the source of what you believe about your new creation self).

Unfortunately, like Peter, many times they succeed in making us look away from Christ, to instead look at the lies they are saying, e.g. you are a failure, or you are prayerless, or you are fearful, or you are sinful, or you don’t have enough faith, or you are not worthy, etc, which are all lies, because they are not consistent with what scripture says about Christ and the new creation man, which is what you are after being born-again. 

You are created in Christ Jesus to do good works (Ephesians 2:10); and you are righteous and truly holy (Ephesians 4:24). Christ Jesus is the new you, because the new creation man is Christ, which is why you must keep looking unto Him to remind yourself of who God has made you to be. Don’t listen to the lies of the enemy, no matter how “correct” they may seem to describe you; but rather, look to Jesus and confess His word to yourself, just as Peter asked Jesus to say to him: “Come”. That “come”, for us, represents the Word of God that we are to rehearse to ourselves to gain supernatural strength to live a victorious Christian life (strength to miraculously walk upon the water). That is how you practically look unto Jesus to run your Christian race.

Prayer for today:

Lord Jesus, thank You for bidding me “Come”. Thank You for the many precious things You have said to me in scriptures, like: be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect, in Matthew 5:48. Thank You for bidding me to “Come and be perfect”. Help me to focus on You and Your word, so as to gain the power to “walk upon the water” — the power to have a victorious Christian walk towards You. Lord Jesus, help me not to pay attention to the waves of the lies of the enemy; only let me focus on You my Savior. Amen!