It’s 3:00 am. The disciples are fighting a headwind on the Sea of Galilee. And Matthew 14:25 says, “Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. ‘It’s a ghost,’ they said, and cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus said to them: ‘Take courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid.’ ‘Lord, if it is you,’ Peter replied, ‘tell me to come to you on the water.’ Jesus said, ‘Come.’ Then Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. When he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me’!”
Peter is the one who impulsively cut off Malchus’ ear when the religious leaders came to arrest Jesus, but we don’t see any of the other disciples coming to Jesus’ defense! Peter is the one who denies Jesus three times, but he’s the only one who got close enough to get caught. And Peter sinks. He loses faith and loses face, but we don’t see any of the other disciples getting out of the boat.
It’s easy to criticize Peter from the comfortable confines of the boat. Theodore Roosevelt said, “It’s not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.”
Matthew 14 is a microcosm on life: if you want to walk on water, you’ve got to get out of the boat. The boat represents our security blankets, our comfort zones, our human limitations. And Jesus says, “Take courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid.” That is the most common command in Scripture: “Don’t be afraid” (NIV) or “Fear not” (KJV). It is repeated 366 times in the Old and New Testament.
Anytime you do anything for the first time it’s scary! But that is part of the growth process. John Ortberg says, “God has an inextinguishable habit of asking people to do things that are scary to them.”
The cure for the fear of failure isn’t success. The cure for the fear of failure is failure. The cure for the fear of rejection isn’t acceptance. The cure for the fear of rejection is rejection. Allergies provide a perfect analogy. Allergists treat allergies by exposing you to a small quantity of what you’re allergic to. That’s how you build up immunity. If you’re allergic to failure, you need to be exposed to failure.
Step out of that boat of comfort. Be prepared to sink some if you must. Lose some face if you must must. BE courageous enougfh to fail some. Bceuae it will cure you of the fear of failure and enable you to trust God for His Word more determintaely so that you finally "walk on water" on His Word!
