Walking on the Sea Matthew 14: 22 - 33

In Matthew 14:22-33, we experience the story of Peter walking on water and we learn more about faith and fear.

When the Apostles first see the Savior walking on the water, they fear that he it is a spirit. In our lives today, we are often times faced with decisions, challenges or trials where are first response is to be afraid like the apostles first were when they saw a being walking on the water.

Peter being filled with faith asks the Lord that if it is Him “bid me come unto thee on the water”. This response shows that he has incredible faith in Jesus Christ knowing that if it was indeed Him walking on water than through the power of Jesus Christ, he would be able to walk on the water as well.

Peter turns his faith into action as he takes those first steps on the water, but is filled with fear as he becomes unfocused on his goal of joining Jesus Christ on the water and the surroundings become clear to him as Christ becomes blurry. Many times, we may lose our focus, but it is important to keep our eye on our eternal goal.

As Peter begins to sink, he calls out to the Lord “save me” and the Lord immediately stretches forth his hand to catch him.

We our exhorted time after time to “come unto Christ” and we can learn from Peters example that as we do come unto Christ and call to him to “save me”, Jesus Christ will immediately come to our aid to help relieve our burden.

There is a guarantee through this journey of life that we will all be faced with our own personal “storms”. We will all face challenges, but we are blessed with another guarantee in our life and that is explained further in Doctrine and Covenants 88:67, it says “And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things”. As we face the inevitable challenges in life, we can all be filled with hope as we keep our eye to the single to the glory of Christ and our whole bodies shall be filled with light. As Peter stepped onto the water, he was focused on Jesus Christ, his eye was single to his glory and thus, he was blessed and was able to walk on the water. We also learn from Peter that if we take our eye off of Jesus Christ and let fear inside then we will face the consequences. Christ will always be there to catch us when we fall. We may all be filled with the hope knowing that as we keep our eye single to his glory, then there shall be no darkness in you. That is such a great promise knowing that in the darkest, scariest of times, we can still rely on the blessings that the Atonement brings in each and every one of our lives. We will all be faced with decisions in our future especially as we are going to school, starting families, and becoming independent. As we make those decisions, our thoughts may become clouded by many different things, but remember this scripture in D&C 88:67 and keep your eye on the eternal perspective.