Getting your Feet Wet

This morning I want to look at Matthew's account of Jesus walking on the water, and since it is such a long passage, I ask that you read it for yourself, then I will paraphrase what I want you to see this morning. This passage is found in Mat. 14:22-33.
In vs 22, Jesus asked the disciples to get on a ship and set sail without Him, and immediately they obeyed. Isn't it always easy to obey God in the small things He ask us to do? Now look down at vs 24, they were in the midst of the sea, and just when it seemed that God was not there with them a storm arose. I imagine they were worried, they might not make it. But in vs 25 we see that Jesus went to them, they did not expect Him to be there, so they thought it was a ghost. Notice now that when Jesus called out to them, only Peter believed it was actually Jesus. Then Peter, and Peter alone stepped out on faith to go to Jesus. Peter had no way of knowing for a fact it was Jesus, he had no reason to believe that he would be safe, and yet over the side of the boat he went, walking on the water. Peter had a great moment of faith, and as a result he is the only human to ever walk on water.
But, just like most of us, right in the middle of his great victory, he took his eyes off of God, just for a moment, just because he was curious what was going on around him. And, of course he saw the trouble, and danger around him and he panicked. When he panicked, he forget that God was there, and he began to sink. Immediately Jesus reached out and saved him. I can't count how many times He has had to reach out and save me. Then Jesus rebukes Peter for not having enough faith. At first glance this may seem strange, after all Peter had enough faith to walk on water. Maybe so, but he did not have enough faith to trust God, once he noticed the trouble around him.
As soon as they reached the ship, immediately the storm ceased. There is always peace with Jesus in our life, it's just sometimes we have to have faith that it is there in order to access it. The thing to notice here is that the disciples believed after they had seen but not before, all but Peter. Who believed then took his eyes off Jesus.
I hear so many people talk bad about Peter because he took his eyes off of Jesus, however we have to remember he had more faith than any of us, because he actually stepped out on faith and walked on the water, for a moment at least. Don't misunderstand me, Peter sinned when he looked away, I just don't want his victory to get lost in his failure. In order to fail the way Peter did, we have to have enough faith to step out to start with.
How many times has God asked you to do something that would require you to step out on faith and enter the unknown? How many of those times did you obey? In my life I can point to several times when I failed to do what I was asked because I did not have enough faith. I was to afraid to trust that He would take care of me, that I would be able to walk on water.
The next time you are faced with staying in the boat, or getting your feet wet, remember Peter, as long as you keep your eyes on Jesus, your feet is all that get wet.