You Can’t Walk On Water Without Jesus by ‘brother bill’
Can you walk on water when it’s not frozen I can’t do it without Jesus Christ, nether could Peter; how about you?
The water-walking episode was the one that finally got my attention. I had read how Peter stepped out:
“And Peter answered Him and said, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.’ So He said, ‘Come.’ And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, ‘Lord, save me!’ And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’”
I tried a smaller version. I knew that I could walk on the water in the frozen winter time as I was raised playing hockey in Michigan, but not liquid summer water. So I stepped off a low bank into a cove in the ocean, eyes fixed on the far side, faith the size of a mustard seed that had been left out in the rain. The cove received me with the enthusiasm of an old friend. I came up sputtering and heard, I swear, a quiet chuckle from somewhere above the Palm trees. Little faith, indeed. I heard that the Salton Sea you could stand on, but that’s not true.
That is when the central verse finally landed, not as a motto but as a diagnosis: I had been trying in my own flesh without my creator recreating me.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
So, did you get that? Nothing. Not “very little.” Not “a respectable amount if you try hard.” Nothing. Trying, working, going to and even fixing to, didn’t apply. Even can’t, became won’t, when the Holy Spirit called a spade a spade I had fear, not faith for I was trusting in my ability to fail I saw my deficiencies instead of God’s abundance the cattle on 1,000 hills. All my fence-post heroics and dog-blessing resolutions were just a man waving his arms after the branch has already been cut. The failures were not interruptions of the walk; they were the walk showing me I had been trying to stroll on my own two feet carrying my baggage, not confessing and giving it to him.
So, we can walk God’s path even when it crosses the river, sea or even the ocean, as long as I have Jesus Christ.
Blessings on your journey… ‘brother bill/dad’
