Living From Sunday 2 Sunday
If you want to live for God, just going to church on Sunday is not enough. Together we will walk the journey between Sundays to deal with everything this life throws at us, 15 minutes at a time.
Living From Sunday 2 Sunday
EP 185: When Fear Meets Faith: Lessons From Peter On The Water
What do you do when the wind gets loud and your faith feels small? We explore two storm scenes—Peter stepping onto the waves and the disciples waking a sleeping Jesus—to show how attention shapes experience and why focus can turn panic into steady steps. Along the way, we open the door to honest doubt and deconstruction, not as dead ends but as invitations to bring hard questions to the source and hear a living “Come.”
I share how “little faith” shows up in our reactions, our timelines, and our circles, and why leaving the boat of hopelessness often starts with curating inputs and choosing voices that build hope instead of fear. We talk practical rhythms for anxious times: Scripture meditation that reframes headlines, short breath prayers that interrupt spirals, gratitude lists that anchor memory, and pre-deciding to pause before posting. These small, repeatable moves keep our eyes on Jesus even when the waves refuse to calm.
You’ll hear a simple but demanding thesis: focus determines your future. The world’s chaos may not change today, but your attention can. When we center on the presence and character of Christ—His authority at rest, His hand extended, His record of faithfulness—our choices shift. We speak peace instead of panic, act with courage instead of impulse, and remember who is in the boat. If you’re tired of sinking beneath the news cycle, this conversation offers clear steps back to solid footing and a reminder that proximity to Jesus is the safest place to stand.
If this resonated, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs calm, and leave a review to help others find the show. Tell us in the comments: what practice helps you keep your eyes on Jesus when the wind gets loud?
Make sure that you like, share, and subscribe to today's episode. Um, of course, this podcast is available everywhere where they can be found. So if you're listening to the audio version, please make sure that you uh like, share, and subscribe. If you're watching me via YouTube, uh, make sure that you subscribe to my YouTube channel as well. Uh, we've made some good traction on the YouTube channel as of late. So we just want to continue that momentum. So please do me a favor and make sure that you are subscribed to the channel as well. Okay, so today uh I want to talk about faith, and I want to talk about how our faith is like how it shows up whenever we are afraid. Fear is something that is a constant um marker and a constant test to what we believe about God and how we respond to the word of God. Um, throughout um scripture, specifically in the book of Matthew, um, when Jesus is talking about um either trusting in the provision of God or the protection of God or even uh being um secure in just the presence of God, um, he describes in these scenarios as the people having little faith, right? So um in Matthew 14, um it's a famous story where uh Jesus is walking on the water to the disciples after he sent them ahead. Um, and while they're on the sea, the winds get boisterous, the waves start to crash. Um, and so they become afraid because they see someone walking on the water and they think that this part, and so Jesus says, Hey, take courage, don't be afraid, it's me, right? And Peter is uh the one bold enough to say, if it's really you, if you are who you say you are, bid me to come, right? And Jesus says, Come on, right? So Peter gets out of the boat and he begins to walk, he takes steps on a foundation that only two recorded people in scripture have ever walked on, Peter and Jesus, and they're walking on water, right? Jesus, uh Peter's walking toward Jesus, and then fear creeps in because instead of keeping his eyes on Jesus, he looks at the wind, he remembers the waves, and then he begins to sink, right? And Jesus, you know, Peter says, Save me, Jesus reaches out and like reaches out his hand and saves him, and he says, Why did you doubt? O ye of little faith, and I think about that particular um story, and it's it's like there is tangible proof that being obedient to Jesus produces a miracle. Um, whatever question that was in Peter's mind, whatever concept of confusion regarding who Jesus was, um Peter was bold enough to acknowledge that, right? He said, if you are who you say you are, I know you say that you're Jesus, but I'm not quite sure, right? I need to know there's so much chaos going on around the the winds of the sea is altering my ability to be sure in who you are. I've spent time with you, and I should be able to recognize who you are, I should be able to identify your voice, but I'm not quite sure. In times past, there wasn't anything blocking my way, there wasn't anything, um, there wasn't any other voice that was louder than yours, right? I had full confidence in you, Jesus. But now, in the moment, whenever the storm comes, whenever um this massive opposition is facing me, I have my doubts. And just like Peter, I think life treats us this way. Um, whenever things are tame, whenever they are um filled with peace and no uh conflict, it's easier to trust God, it's easier to hold on to him, it's easier to see him. But in the moments that um our vision gets blurry, in the moments change, it can be difficult sometimes to remember those moments of familiarity, right? Sometimes we forget who God is whenever trials come. And what I love about Jesus is if you acknowledge that you're confused, Jesus doesn't turn you away. And I think a lot of us, man, we're still trying to figure out life, we're still trying to figure out what's true, what's false. Um, we we're living in a in an age of deconstruction where at one time we had a full, full-blown belief in Jesus, and then life happens, right? And so the God of our parents, the God of our childhood, um may not be the same God of our teenage years, our young adult life, our um established um adult life, married life, right? And so as our experiences in life change, we see God from a different perspective because now there's different sets of trials as I matriculate through life, and so there's a period where I don't really know if you are the guy that my parents said you are, right? And so there's all of these questions, and what I think is interesting about deconstruction is that if we go to the source with our questions, if we go to God and say, Hey, this is not what I thought it was, this is not the way I thought my walk with you would go, right? I thought that all of my family members would be around all the time. I thought that the issues and trials of this life um wouldn't be so overwhelming to the point where I feel like I want to give up. Right. These questions that we wrestle with, I think when we take it to the source and we take it to Jesus and we um ask God to reveal Himself again to us via His Word in our individual prayer times, Jesus will always respond. He'll always say, Yeah, come, come to me, all who um are heavy laden, all who work and strive, um, but are tired, are burdened down by the cares of this world. Jesus promises to give us rest, right? And so as we wreck wrestle through, you know, our beliefs, our faith, and then our actions, Jesus says, Come on. And so that invitation then spurs Peter to do something, it spurs him to get from his current situation because scripture also says that everybody in the boat was scared, right? And so fear isn't something that um is meant to be comfortable. If we give up and if we lose hope and uh believe that our situations never will improve, that um phrase misery loves company becomes a real thing, right? We will align ourselves with people who also have no hope, who also are afraid, who also um live life through the lens of hopelessness and anxiety and angst, right? But Jesus is asking Peter, okay, you've got to remove yourself from this boat of doubt and follow me and trust that I said I am, right? So Peter gets out the boat and he's walking on water. You walk toward Jesus, your eyes are on Jesus, you're you have a zeal and a hunger for him that is um unquestioned, right? It's a great place, you're doing things, you're operating in the faith in a way that you've never operated in before. This is what it's all about, right? And then another wave of trial scope, and that's so interesting that even though the even though Peter was walking on the water, the environment never changed, right? But you don't see that the environment hasn't changed because your focus is not on the winds and the waves, it's on Jesus, it's on his will for our lives, it's it's um on going back to that place of devotion, meditation, the presence of God is the most important part. But yet the circumstances around Peter didn't change, and many times the hope and the security of Jesus' presence allows us to focus and not be bothered with the chaos that's happening around us, and we all know this is um October of 2025. There is chaos everywhere right now. But those of us who are anxious and filled with despair, it's likely because we've taken our eyes off of Jesus, we're um so focused on what's happening around us that we've forgotten that sweet, safe space that we have with Jesus Christ. And so Peter begins to uh look at what's happening around him and he begins to sink and so Jesus sees this because Peter doesn't want to die, he says, Jesus save me, and Jesus reaches out his hand and say and again the most interesting part of that is that Jesus says, Why did you doubt? Oh you of little faith. And so I think we have to examine our faith. We have to examine our confidence in God. One way that you can look at faith is um having confidence in God to obey his every word, and knowing that being with him, it really is the safest place. Being in his will is the safest place, and so you choose not to go outside of Jesus, of the comfort zone of Jesus, of the proximity of Jesus, right? Um, despite the storms that are around, despite the weapons that are forming. As long as I'm with Jesus, he promised that they're not going to prosper. He promised that um there is enough security in Jesus that he can protect and keep me uh better than anything else in the world, right? Another um instance of Jesus describing someone's lack of faith as little faith, it is again with storms, which I think is interesting. The disciples again are crossing a different body of water, and this time Jesus is with them, he is asleep at the bottom of the ship, and the storm and the waves and the wind are rocking the boat heavily, so much to the point to where um these experienced fishermen, those who have who are accustomed to strong seas and uh heavy winds, and right, this particular storm was so abnormal to them that they feared for their lives, and so they see Jesus who's asleep, he is unbothered. This is an opportunity for Jesus to get a well-needed wake, but because the disciples are so afraid of what's happening in this situation that's unlike anything that they've ever seen before, they wake up the master and they uh and they accuse Jesus of not caring for their safety, they accuse Jesus of being uh unbothered or not concerned, like if you loved me, you would want me to die like this. How can you sleep at a time like this? How can you not be watching the news? How can you not be upset? How can you not be how can you not respond to all of this chaos that's happening? We've never experienced this in our country, we've never had this much division, we've never had this much of um just unruly situations, right? It's never been this bad. Jesus is sleep, and they wake up Jesus, and Jesus, what he says, he says, Why are you afraid? You have so little faith, and Jesus just stands up, rebukes the wind, rebukes the the waves, and everything stops. I want us to consider how fretful we are given our current have we internally accused God of being blind to the affliction of those who are oppressed. Have we internally accuse God being silent? Yes, it is difficult, yes, it is a dangerous time right now. I honestly um sometimes I've fallen into the trap of letting fear and anxiety kind of mess with my brain when you look at all of the things that's happening. Like there's so much. It's like it's one thing after another after another. But what God is telling us is don't let your fear disrupt what you believe about God. Jesus is with us, He's with us, and as long as He's with us, it doesn't matter what's happening on the outside. We can't forget that we can't be impulsive in our responses, we can't be um so uh high strung that we pulse commentary that's fearful, and you know the enemy already is sowing discord and is making us not trust each other. We need to get back to trusting Jesus and really believing that he is going to have the final say that he has everything under control. I'm recording this podcast the um the week after my my pastor preached a really great uh message from the same sermon, but from um the text of Peter walking on the water, Jesus walking on the water, and the title of his message was My Focus Determines My Future. And I really believe that that message is one that is for our time and for our age. Man, if we're not careful, our internalized fear will cause us to speak the wrong thing, it'll cause us to uh see the wrong thing, to focus on the wrong thing, and it could impact where God wants us to be, right? Trust me, God sees it all, he sees the corruption, he sees the the mistreatment, he sees it all, and we just have to trust and believe that he is going to work it out for our good, he's gonna work it out for those, he's gonna enter the call of those who have been crying out for salvation, crying out for an answer. Wholeheartedly believe that, right? No matter how crazy it looks, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, right? Uh, look beyond the heels because that's where your help is coming from. That help is the Lord, all right? All right, so thank you so much for listening to today's episode. Um, again, make sure that you are uh subscribed to both the YouTube page as well as um the audio podcast. Um, let us know how this podcast is blessing you, and specifically if you're watching via YouTube, um allow God to work on your faith, right? And if you focus on Jesus during this time, I want you to post how your focus switching from this crazy world to Jesus, how it's benefited you this week, all right. So until next time, we'll see you when we see you. Bye. Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe to our channel as well as this content every week, every day, and night.
