The God Lovin’ Redneck: Faith Overcomes Fear

And when even was now come, his disciples went down unto the sea, And entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum.

And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them. And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew.

So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid.

But he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid. Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went. – John 6: 16-21

This miracle of Jesus walking on the sea is mentioned three times in the Bible (Matthew 14: 22-33 and Mark 6: 45-52). There’s a lot going on spiritually in all three accounts that delivers a message to us. What makes Apostle John’s account different than the rest is that he ends it with Jesus entering the boat. The others get into detail of how Peter steps out on the sea and walks toward Jesus. John’s version seems to focus more on Jesus and who He is and how we should respond in the midst of a spiritual boat ride during a storm. I believe this message is symbolic to our lives today.

At least one of the disciples from these verses was Peter. We know this from studying the scriptures from the other accounts. Peter was a skilled fisherman and did this fishing stuff for a living. I’m sure he had seen storms before and knew what to do in stormy situations. Also knowing his leadership qualities, I would guarantee you that he would be first at the steering wheel when a storm hit. This wasn’t his first rodeo!

The fear mentioned in verse 19 wasn’t a fear of the storm. It was a fear of Jesus walking towards them on the water. The disciples didn’t recognize Him and thought He was a ghost. Were they afraid of a ghost? Maybe. But, I think the real fear was knowing that they weren’t alone on the sea. They saw that Jesus was right there with them and that they knew they didn’t have full control of the situation. This fear would have been a fear of surrendering control to Him. It mentions in verse 21 that they ‘willingly’ received Him into the ship. To me this means they ‘let go and let God’. You’ve heard that before, right?

The message to me is that we have to surrender our lives to Jesus. We try to be in control of everything that goes on in our little world. Yes, storms come and we can face them head on in our own strength. We’re not afraid because we know to expect bad things to happen sometimes. So what! Right? We got our ‘big boy pants’ on and we can handle anything that life throws at us. We’re tough! We’re strong! We got it!

The lesson from all of this that we don’t have to face the storm of life by ourselves. We can let go of the fear of letting someone else have control of our life and be willing to let Him step into our boat and ride the storm with us. That’s the cool thing about being a Christian today. One of the many benefits of being a child of God is knowing that I am not alone to face the world. All of the troubles that come my way and all of the junk that gets thrown at me from day to day, I know that Jesus is with me because I want Him there. I let Him in my boat. Just like in verse 20, He is telling us, “It is I, be not afraid.” He is in control and wants us to ‘willingly’ allow Him to help and face life together.

This is where faith overcomes fear. We should have faith in God by trusting in Him in all situations and letting go of the fear of letting Him have control. We don’t have to do it all by ourselves. By putting our faith in God, we have the assurance of knowing that we’re not sailing the sea of life alone.

If you don’t know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you have a choice to make. Do you really want to continue sailing through the storm by yourself? Jesus wants to help you. Let go of the fear that’s holding you down and take that step of faith. He’s walking on the water beside your boat today. Will you willingly let Him in?

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