Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:31)
This is a verse from the story of Jesus walking on the water. If you are not familiar with this story, here is a condensed version. (You can find the full version in Matthew 14:22-33.) Jesus' disciples were on a boat during the middle of a huge storm, when Jesus walked out to them on the water! One of the disciples named Peter wanted to join Jesus, but after he got out of the boat, he noticed the massive waves and began sinking. Jesus saved Peter, but not without drawing attention to Peter's lack of faith. Jesus wasn't afraid to call people out when necessary.
I love this story because not only does it demonstrate Jesus' amazing power, but it shows that Peter, Jesus' follower and one of his closest friends, struggled with his faith like many others before and after him. Peter could physically see that Jesus was walking on the water, but it was so counterintuitive to what his mind knew, that I think it was just a bit too much for him to grasp in that moment.
On the outside looking in, it's easy to be like, "Come on, Peter. You had just seen Jesus feed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. Now you are seeing Him walk on the water and you're still doubting?" But let's think about it for a minute. Are we really that different from Peter?
In our Kids' Ministries spaces at Eagle Brook, we are in a new series called Believe! We want kids to know that they can believe in Jesus and his power, and we want them to realize why they can trust the words and stories in the Bible. We also want them to know that believing in something you cannot see or understand in a concrete way can be difficult. Kids and adults alike need to recognize that there are lots of opposing views out there, but ultimately we need to make a choice about who and what we will believe.
The difficulties believing in the teachings of the Bible seem to have increased for our society the past few decades with science now appearing to hold so many of the answers. But did you know that many scholars and even scientists actually think recent discoveries support faith in a big way? Just think about the intricacies of a human cell, the fact that the sun has exactly the right properties to support our world, and that the precision of gravity keeps people from flying off into space while still being able to move about. I mean, what's the likelihood that everything science has uncovered just randomly happened with no Creator? When looking at it that way, it might actually take more faith to think that all of this just happened by chance.
Even with all of the incredible findings in support of the Bible's teachings on creation and a Creator, believing in God's word can still be challenging because we face a lot of heartache and troubling questions in this broken world. The reality is that not all of our questions have easy answers that our human minds can comprehend either. I'm guessing Peter and the other disciples had some questions about exactly how Jesus was walking on the water during that crazy storm, but despite any doubts that may have been fluttering in their minds, they chose to look past those and believe that Jesus is the Son of God (Matthew 14:33).
Faith in God can't be proven by science or other facts, but I've witnessed many amazing things happen in my life and in the lives of others because of him. However, I've still been like Peter and have had many moments when I don't fully trust because, well, I'm human. I like to have clear, tangible answers to my questions, and I sometimes have trouble understanding a loving and all-powerful Creator. But in my moments of uncertainty, I want to remember Jesus' words to Peter when he was pulling him up out of the water. "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" I want to replace the doubt with faith in the One who is worthy of our trust. I want to believe!
