Matthew 14:22-3 says:

And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.

But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.
But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.

And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.

My goodness. When I thought about this passage in reference to what I wanted to talk about today, I had no idea what I was in for. Every time I re-read this passage, I see a new application to our lives. There are so many sermons that can be preached from this. I encourage y'all to not only listen to what I have to say from it, but also study it for yourself and see how the Holy Spirit guides you to apply it your life.

So there I was last week, having the time of my life. I'd had a fairly decent weekend drill with my reserve unit. I tied for the highest score on the rifle range, also breaking my own high score with the Army. I was able to witness to a couple buddies...just over all really had a decent time. Then, I found out on Monday that I had passed the promotion board and got my E-6. Also in the beginning part of last week I reconciled a couple very important friendships, and I got to visit my family for the first time in a while. It was, for the most part, one of the high weeks in my life.

Then out of nowhere I hit a banana peel in my spiritual life. I went down, and I went down hard. The old creature seriously beat the stuffing out of the new one (II Corinthians 5:17). Let me tell you, I felt worthless, ashamed, and I was not gonna go crawling back to God and ask Him to forgive me and make things right. It then dawned on me that it was attitudes like that one that lead us to spiritual coldness. I had to remind myself that God knows that we're not perfect, that He knows we're going to mess up. I recalled 1 John 1:9, which says "if we confess our sins, he (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness".

Well, I decided to take God at His word. I told Him what I'd done, acknowledged that it was wrong, asked His forgiveness for my turning away, and to strengthen me against it happening again. Shortly afterwards, my fellowship with Him was restored. Around the same time, I began to wonder...what happened? How did I allow this to happen?

Well, I thought back over the preceding few days, and I realized that I had slacked off in my prayer life and Bible reading. I had justified it due to all the traveling I had been doing over the course of those five days. I had not on any day neglected to do either of the two...but I had definitely slacked off. I did the bare minimum, I reckon you could say. Enough to not feel guilty or wrong. Let me just say right now that for anyone reading this that recognizes this pattern of "doing just enough to make God happy", be very careful. You're doing it for the wrong reasons.

But yep, I had allowed myself to drift away from studying God's word and talking to Him through prayer. In other words, I had taken my eyes off Him. When I realized this, two verses occurred to me. One of them was Psalm 119:11 "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee (God)". The other verse was James 4:7 "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you."

Isn't it amazing to realize that with God's help, we have the power to overcome Satan's temptations? What we need to realize though, is that apart from God this is all but impossible. Don't get we wrong- we never were and never will be perfectly sinless. Not in this body, anyhow. What I'm saying, what God's word is saying, is that we have the power to defeat Satan when it comes to "That One Sin". You know the one I'm talking about. It's the one thing above anything else that you're currently struggling with, the one Satan so easily defeats you with. Could be pride, cussing, music, TV, partying, lust, etc. It could be a 'big' sin, it could be a 'little' one. Sorry to say, sin of any kind is a big sin.

I want to remind you of another couple of verses. In Matthew 21:22, Jesus tells us "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." Now, before you start praying for a million bucks, bear in mind that Christ is referring in this verse to the things we pray for that are in alignment with the perfect will of our Almighty God. There are numerous times in the Bible where we're told of the power of prayer.

Secondly, Philippians 4:13 teaches that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

I'm telling you guys, we can have victory if we truly believe what God tells us through His word. We can resist Satan, we can make him flee. Nine weeks ago today, I decided to take God at His word in Philippians 4:13. I needed to quit smoking, a habit I had picked up close to twelve years ago. I was approaching a two-pack a day habit. I knew that without the power of God's help, I would never be able to quit. I'd tried repeatedly in the past on my own, to no avail. Well praise God, today makes nine weeks of not only being smoke free, but I've also not had to fight the first craving. I quit cold turkey, and I've had no cravings. Y'all smokers and former smokers can attest to how amazing that is.

Thing is, though...Satan never really had a chance to attack me in that area. I was holding too tightly to God's promise. I was continually praising and thanking God for the victory that He'd given me the power to have in that area of my life. I just can't stress this enough- You. Can. Beat. Satan. Don’t take my word for it...take God's.

So back to Peter on the water...I see so many similarities between his problem and mine. If you recall, he was actually out of the boat walking on water. By his faith and trust in Christ, he was able to also walk on water. That had to have been one of the crowning moments in his life up to that point. Here he was, experiencing the full power of God. Life could get no better, right? Wrong, lol. What did he do? He took his eyes off Jesus, and he began to sink. How many times do we do this? Way too many, in my opinion.

But look, God's word says that when Peter cried out for help, immediately Jesus reached out and grabbed him. Oh man. Is that awesome, or what? To see that Jesus didn't let him thrash around or drown due to his disbelief. No, Jesus caught him a.s.a.p., and He'll do the same for us.

Have you taken your eyes off God? Are you sinking? You don't have to. One simple conversation with God can turn your entire life around. He's there, and He wants to help you, but you gotta ask first. Don't let yourself sink anymore. Keep in my the childhood Sunday School song: read your Bible, pray every day, and you'll grow, grow grow. Y'all have a good one.

Previous editions of this series:
* - Edition 4--Nov. 2
* - Edition 3--Oct. 24
* - Edition 2--Oct. 13
* - Edition 1--Oct. 4

Photo Credit: Blake Fought