Losing a job is up there as one of life's major stresses. Though it lacks the intensity of a cancer diagnosis, or the loss of a family member, or a divorce, it can rattle the nerves pretty well. Most of the time we do well and move forward with hope. But we both have our "Peter" times, when we take our eyes off the Lord. During those times, we get teary-eyed, we lament, we fret, we toss and turn, we frantically try to solve the problem in our own strength, or we allow our minds to go over the various disastrous things that might befall us.
And then, usually within twenty-four painful hours, we have a light bulb moment. "The water!" we say to ourselves. "Peter, and the water! How could I forget??"
Matthew 14:25-31
During the fourth watch of the night 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 Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."
"Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water."
"Come," he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"
Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"
If you're going through hardship right now, and you feel yourself weakening from the weight of it, ADJUST YOUR GAZE. Ignore the scary wind, or whatever static you've got going on, and look UP. It helps, my Friend.
Please visit Sara Meister, whose blog is featured on the sidebar. She just moved away from Hawaii, has a relatively new marriage, a new baby, a new daycare, and a new job. A lot is on her plate. Maybe send her some love? I met her through this blog recently. She also has a colicky baby, and must have happened upon this site via a keyword-search.
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3 comments:
Hey Momma's Heart.... loved your post. Perfect reminder. I love how you use the phrase "The water" as your imagery to remember where we need to focus our eyes when it's stormy!
Thank you so much for stopping by my place and leaving a footprint of your presence in my comment box.
BTW, I agree about your comment re the 'joy' of shorter postings. My own eyes tend to glaze over postings that have too many words! It's like my eyes don't know where to look, so they skip over!
I entered a devotional contest recently and the judge's critique said I had too many thoughts in it. I thought it all melded fine, but when I look back, I realized I tried to say too much! One thought, one key thought is best.
So your comment is helpful -- as I'm trying to do that in my blogs now too.
Now, have a wonderful day. Grace to you!
So true! I've been having a tough week. Many reasons, but they all seemed so petty last night when I found out about a close family friend with advanced pancreatic cancer.
I'm going to stop looking down at the water.
Thank you for linking to my blog. I don't have a lot of time to blog (or respond to comments now) but my husband arrives Saturday evening so I should get a little free time since he can help out. I think I actually found your blog doing a Google search. Anyway, I really enjoy reading it and hope you enjoy mine from time to time. Hang in there with your husband's job hunt, I'm sure the right thing is out there and he just hasn't found it yet.
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