"Take courage, I am here."
 
  Have you ever took a step of faith? Unaware of what that step will lead to? Well so did Peter. In Matthew 14, the scripture talks about after a long day of teaching and heading back to land on the other side of the waters, they hit a massive storm. Strong winds have risen and they were fighting heavy waves. In the middle of this choas, one of the disciples got a glymps of something standing in the distance on the water. "GHOST!!" they cry out! (I dont know about you, but I would be freaking out too!) Little do they know, It was Jesus.
     As Jesus came towards them, walking on the water, He said " Dont be afraid! Take courage, I am here!" At this moment, there could be different emotions. Fear, Shocked, Amazed, Doubtful, Confused on how this is possible. Peter steps out to say "Lord if its you, tell me to come to you on the water!" and Jesus replied "Come."
   Taking this literal step of faith, Peter was putting His life in Jesus' hands and testing Him. Testing to see if He is who He says He is. As Peter steps out of the boat, he begins to walk on the water towards Jesus. Step by step, closer and closer, he begins to grasp what he is doing. Looking around at the crashing of the eerie waves and with fear in His eyes, he begins to sink. "Lord save me!" he cries out. Immediately Jesus reaches His hand and catches him. "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" As they all got back on the boat, they all began to worship Him crying out "Truly you are the son of God!"
 
   This story is still relevant today. With so much evil around us in this world, it can look like a crazy storm. As we step out of our boat and be bold, its not all rainbows and butterflies. Its scary. Its vulnerable, and as we step out and keep our eyes on everything around us instead of whats infront of us, then we will begin to sink. Our fear takes over our minds. Our doubt of "Is Jesus really there?" Sinking further down makes us feel like its impossible to get back to the top for air, but Jesus ALWAYS reaches out His hand to pull us back up to Him. Taking that step of faith and walking towards Jesus is the only way we will get true peace from our storm. Even though everything around us is crashing, we have to KEEP OUR EYES ON HIM! Lock eyes with the Father. He will save you everytime.