Sink the Boat

Matthew 14:29 American Standard Version (ASV)

 ²⁹ And he said, Come. And Peter went down from the boat, and walked upon the waters to come to Jesus.

Today I worked on my book for quite some time and it is funny how God works.  A brief description of the book:  My life being married to a drug addict and how God walked me out of it.  I did not realize until today what direction scripturally I was going, but it seems to be a lot about the boat stories and trusting God to keep you upright in the water.  I was describing in my book the part of my story where I had to turn to God to be saved from the mess I was in, yet when things seemed to be going okay, I climbed back into the boat I had stepped out of only to find myself taking control again.  The following is a small bit of what I wrote:

Okay, walking on water.  In the story of Peter, we see that God asks him to trust Him and get out of the boat ONTO the water.  Notice it does not tell say to jump INTO the water, DIVE into the unknown or BELLY-FLOP into uncharted waters.  It clearly states:  Walk ONTO the water.  At this point in my walk with God, this was exactly what He was speaking to me.  Walk out of this marriage, spend a time separated, seek after the things of Me and I will surely not let you sink.  Well, it was easy at first and then as you saw my reference to the texting I began to sink. ( I am referring to an earlier chapter where I receive a text from my husband stating that when I was done playing church to come and see if he was till waiting for me)

I started to feel safe.  I began to think, okay God got me out and now I can handle this.  No worries.  Onward and upward.  Forward going.  And then I began to realize I could not do this alone and I had to re-step out of the boat I had climbed back into.  How many times as Christians do we do this?  We get all excited about the things of God, begin to think we know it all only to have it fall apart because we took it upon ourselves to get back in our safety boat?  Get out of the boat!  Stay out of the boat!  Sink the boat!  Stay on the water with Jesus.  Never look down.  Never look back.  Eyes on Jesus.

As I reread what I wrote today I was finally beginning to realize that I had to get rid of the boat I was holding onto.  I needed to know that I knew God had me safely in His arms and I did not need my old boat anymore, kind of like we don’t need the old self either.  By the renewing of my mind in the things of God I was able to come to this conclusion of sinking my boat.  Granted it has taken me a couple of years to get to this point, but I am here now…..let it sink!

As I was finishing up with writing and the battery was dying on my laptop, God decided to have some fun.  Since it was nice day out I decided my “office” would be at an area park where there was a pond and a river, however, God spoke and said it was not the place, so I drove further into town and found a place along the bike path by a local boat launch.  What an office!  The lake, the sun and the occasional greeting from skateboarding teenagers and bikers!  As I was beginning to pack up a gentlemen came down the bike path walking his bike.  He kindly asked if he could sit at the other table next to me and plopped down looking exhausted.

He began to converse with me and being alone, I was a little nervous but soon the conversation turned to God and I felt at ease.  We shared some thoughts on religion vs. relationship and then I began to explain where I was as a Christian writer and shared exactly what I just shared with you.  This man stopped and looked at me intently when I said you have to sink your boat.  He then proceeded to share with me his struggles and how God must have sent me to speak to him.  He said every time he bikes this path he stops at the tables and prays and gives thanks to God.  He said he had not stopped on his way through the first time passing by but he saw me typing away.

Two miles from where I was he popped a tire on his bike and he had to walk it back towards home.  We laughed about how maybe if he had stopped to talk to me the first time through maybe the tire would not have popped.  All in all, the moral of this is that God is at work in our lives every moment of every day.  I know that is hard to wrap our minds around, but He is.  He needed this man to hear the words I spoke as a vessel He uses.  This man was desperate and he needed a word of knowledge to get him to the next level.  I was also able to teach him in the short time we had that he had a testimony to share and as he denied it I began to speak life into him.  We parted ways and we both knew it was a God thing that we crossed paths today.

Last words:

Take a moment and evaluate where you are.  Has God walked you out of something only for you to turn right back around and climb back into the boat where it is familiar?  How can you choose right now to get out on the water again?  What is God preparing for you ahead?  Do you think it’s safe to walk on the water?  If the answer to the last question is no or maybe, then I encourage you to seek the face of God and decide how much faith in Him you really have.