Why Did You Doubt: Trusting God In The Storm

Remember that word God gave you right before you started tussling with your doubt? Me too. I get butterflies when I think of all the times I was a fierce warrior and then doubt started talking to me crazy.

Doubt is a seed sown by the enemy to steal your focus. It creates a web of chaos and fear in the path of your calling.

One of the most known stories in the bible is the story of Jesus walking on water (Matthew 14: 22-36). I’ll be doing something a little different than my usual posts, and I will be sharing with you some revelation that God gave me. Together we will breakdown the bible notes that I took.

It’s personal for me because bible time with Jesus is intimate, but I believe this breakdown will help someone like it has helped me.

Going Into The Unknown

As a preface, Jesus had just finished feeding the 5,000 with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. His disciples were present and actively lending a helping hand. After feeding the 5,000 there were still basketfuls of broken pieces leftover. The disciples experienced this miracle alongside Jesus, and after Jesus sent them on their way by boat.

Matthew 14: 22-24

²² “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. ²³ After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, ²⁴ and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.“

Matthew 14: 22-24 (NIV)

When I read this text, I immediately thought about how sometimes it looks like Jesus is making me go ahead of Him while He is distracted attending to the needs of others. What I love about Jesus is that He’s working on my behalf, even when it seems like He’s nowhere to be found. The disciples had no idea where He was. But Jesus was in isolation on the mountain. Although He was praying and spending quality time with God well into the night, He was on the mountain. Still able to see the boat that His disciples were on.

Even when Jesus sends us to scary and uncertain places, His eyes are still on us from the mountain. And although we can’t see Him, He can see us and even the things we have yet to see. Contrary circumstances call for Christ. When you’re going up against opposition, that’s when we need Him and seek Him the most. And although it feels like Jesus is nowhere near, His presence is all around us.

Wrestling Doubt

This is where the plot thickens and things start to get interesting.

Matthew 14: 25-27

²⁵ “Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. ²⁶ When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

²⁷ But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Matthew 14: 25-27 (NIV)

I find it so interesting that Jesus appeared “shortly before dawn.” Can you imagine being on a boat in the middle of the sea, in the middle of a storm, at dark? But that is often when we have an encounter with God. It reminds me of Elijah in 1 Kings 19: 11-12, there was wind, an earthquake, a fire, and then the still small voice of God. So similar to a lot of our own encounters with God, the encounter comes after the chaos.

But what happens when you have an encounter with God and you can’t recognize Him? The disciples didn’t recognize Jesus because He showed up in a different way. Raise your hand if you’ve shouted out “Jesus, make me new” and then got frustrated because He started pulling you into unknown territory 🙋🏽‍♀️. We rebuke it, call it evil, and call it the enemy because it’s unfamiliar, but it’s still God.

This led me to wonder, if the disciples wouldn’t have cried out, would Jesus have responded to them? One of the things that has been an access point in my relationship with God is being completely honest in how I’m feeling. If I’m angry, disappointed, exhausted or whatever I am feeling, I know that I can give it to Him straight. Because God can work with our honesty. When we’re being honest with God, we’re also being honest with ourselves. I love that Jesus immediately responded when His disciples cried out. That shows His character, He doesn’t want us to be discontent.

Matthew 14: 28-30

²⁸ “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

²⁹ “Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Matthew 14: 28-30 (NIV)

One thing a lot of us have wrong about God is how He speaks to us. We expect long, meticulously detailed conversations when God speaks. But truthfully, He doesn’t give extensive responses and explanations. That wouldn’t require much of a relationship with God or much faith. So the fact that He answered Peter with one word isn’t bizarre. Sometimes God will set our destiny into motion with one word. And that one word is all we need.

But with Peter and the disciples thinking Jesus was a ghost and Jesus’ short answer, how does Peter know for sure it’s Jesus? He knows His voice. Just like I can recognize my dad’s voice from across a room, Peter was familiar with the voice of Jesus. And we become so acquainted with the voice of God by spending time with Him. God will call us into the deep and if we aren’t familiar with His voice, we leave room for doubt and distraction to seep in.

Peter is my boy, but Peter took his eyes off of what he was supposed to be doing. He become so distracted by the wind that he lost focus of his steps on the water. Hello, my name is Peter. And my guess is your name is Peter as well. We often start to sink when we’re so distracted looking at what everyone else has going on or thinking about all of the “what if” scenarios. Reasons why comparison is never a good idea.

But it baffles me that Peter is doing this miraculous thing and he’s scared of some wind. He was walking on water! The water is the same environment that he used to thrive in, the same environment that he once thought was his purpose. Sometimes when we see the waves on the path ahead of us, we allow them to distract us from the miracle that is taking place. But we can always cry out to Jesus.

Why Did You Doubt?

³¹ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

³² And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. ³³ Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Matthew 14: 31-32

A key word that keeps jumping out at me in this text is immediately. We have a Jesus that will come to our rescue immediately. No matter what type of sticky situation we get ourselves into, no matter the mustard seed faith we manage to have in the storms. Jesus loves us, doubting or not.

Finally, the winds died down once in the boat, as if Jesus orchestrated the winds as a test. Every so often, God tests our brief moments of faith. Almost to reveal to us what areas we’re still doubting or struggling in. We say we have faith, but is it only when things are going well? I encourage you to be bold enough to have faith in your storms and have faith in the God in your storms.