You Were Closer to Your Miracle Than You Think — Right Before the Storm Stole It

I'm excited to keep going in this series, because today I want to show you something about Peter's story on the water that most people miss entirely — how close he actually got before he ever started to sink.

The storm never changed. Peter did.

It was a violent storm before Jesus showed up. It was a violent storm when Jesus was walking on it. It was still a violent storm when Peter stepped out of the boat onto it. The storm never changed at any point in this story.

What changed was Peter's focus. The only thing that had ever kept him off that sea before wasn't the wind — it was the absence of the word "come."

Once he had that word, the wind and the waves had exactly the same bearing on his ability to walk on water as they'd always had: none.

He'd walked further than you'd expect

Jesus was far enough away that the disciples first mistook Him for a ghost. Peter had to actually walk toward Him. So think about how far Peter had come by the time he started to sink — close enough that Jesus could immediately reach out and catch him.

That means Peter wasn't drowning somewhere out in the middle of the sea. He was within arm's reach of the complete fulfillment of the very word he'd been given. He was right at the edge of walking the whole way to Jesus when the storm finally got his attention.

How many people do that — walk for weeks, walk for months, get right up to the edge of the complete fulfillment of a promise, and let something else steal their focus at the last stretch?

Beginning to sink is not the same as sunk

“And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’”

Matthew 14:31 (NKJV)

Scripture doesn't say Peter sank. It says he began to sink. His foot went a little lower than it had been — that's it. He didn't drop like a stone through a trapdoor.

What if, in that exact moment, instead of panicking, he'd said, "Wait — I've taken my eyes off Jesus. This wind does not determine my destiny. The Son of the living God told me to come, and I'm coming"?

He wasn't there in the first place to get rescued. He was there to walk in that word.

Speak to the storm, don't just cry out to be rescued

Thankfully, Peter's cry — "Lord, save me!" — was still a cry of faith, reaching for Jesus instead of giving up entirely. But that's not where this story started. It started with Peter dictating that one word would be enough for him to walk on water in the first place.

This is who you get to be. Whatever storm currently has your attention — a diagnosis, a bank account, a report that hasn't changed yet — look straight at it and say it doesn't determine your destiny. The word you were given does.

Storm, you listen to me. I'm talking to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I command you to be still. God has given me His Word, and I will walk on it. I refuse to fear. I choose to believe it will be exactly as He promised me, in Jesus' name.

Fight To Win.