Stepping out of the boat…

Last updated on: December 7, 2011 at 4:00 am by Andy Gill

Stepping out of the boat… 2011-12-07T04:00:06-05:00 Andy Gill

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Trust in the Lord with all your heart…

If I trust in the Lord with all my heart, all my mind, all my soul, and all my strength…

Then why do I hesitate when I feel he’s asking me to do something that requires faith.

For me, I don’t hesitate when he asks me to do something out of faith. It’s that I hesitate because I don’t know if it’s Him or if it’s just me talking to myself…

During times like these I think of Peter, “how did Peter know he should get out of the boat, how was he so sure? What if it wasn’t Jesus calling him to get out of the boat? Think about the consequences… he could’ve drowned to death, died even.

Peter didn’t take immense amount of time to make sure that it was actually Jesus, before he got out of the boat, he just figured that if it was Jesus he’d too be able to walk on water… That’s irresponsible. Stupid even.

Peter “The Rock”, the one that the foundation of the early church was being laid upon, making shaky, unstable decisions, risking not only his life, but the well being of his family, and possibly even the existence of the early church. (Though I’m sure Jesus would have figured out another way to further the church)

I mean… should we go about our day to day lives operating this way? Saying, “Well I’m not positive God is asking me to quit my job, move here or there, marry him or her, but… I guess we’ll just find out”

Well, WHAT IF IT IS NOT HIM asking whatever of us?! What then?

You drown. Others may even drown with you.

Last Sunday, the pastor said something pretty profound,

He said “If you’re looking for logical reasoning to get out of the boat, you’re probably not going to find anything…”

But the thing is, I’m not looking for “logical reasoning to get out of the boat”, I’m looking for assurance that it actually is him calling me to step out of the boat.

You see if I wasn’t clear in the above, Peter was not sure it was actually Christ calling him to get out of the boat, that is until he actually got out of the boat and started to miraculously walk on water.

So my question is, “Is this what God is expecting of us? That as believers when we feel something impressed upon us to ‘step out of the boat’ that we should just act?”

Not question. Just act.

Even when it makes no sense? Even when it seems more logical to stay in the boat, then it is to step out of the boat?

Is this what faith is? Stepping out of the boat into situations where we’re just not sure?

So what is your “boat”? What is it that you feel God is asking you do right now? Do you think you have the courage to take this risk? Are you able to step into the unknown? How do you know when it is truly God when you feel something risky impressed on you?

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