Walking on the Sea

Hey Everyone!

So the topic for this week is about Christ walking on the sea and the reaction of the fisherman.

Matthew 14:25-33

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.

When the Apostles saw Christ waling towards them they didn’t know what or who it was and because of that they were troubled and afraid. When I think of that reaction it reminds me of how most of us act when we look at the trials ahead of us and we are afraid of what is going to happen.

As Christ was coming towards them Peter asked that if he were Christ to showing them a sign or in this case to be called out on the water to Christ. I am not sure what this response of Peter’s tells about him other than he wanted to do what Christ was doing so that he knew it was Christ. For us, we sometimes ask to have a sign that our trials will be over or that something will come into our life to make the trial easier to bear.

So Christ had Peter walk out onto the water to him but in verse 30 Peter looked around him at the waves and the danger and he lost faith that he could walk on the water and he started to sink. Many of us have faith that we can accomplish things but when we start looking around at what the world is throwing at us we lose our faith and can no longer stand up.

As Peter was sinking he cried out for help from Christ to save him and in verse 31 Christ immediately stretched out His hand to help Peter. That is something that I really liked about this section. Christ didn’t stop for a moment after Peter asked for help but he “immediately” helped him!

In D&C 88:67 it reads,

“And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things.”

The principle from this verse is that we should have our eyes single to the glory of God. I had no clue what that meant but the second week I was home from Idaho I gave a talk for church and I was asked to talk about having our eyes single to the glory of God. What I learned from that was that having our eyes single or at one with the glory of God. I had found a quote that really helped me to understand what this phrase meant.

Elder Nelson in April 1988 said the following,

“Imagine, if you will, a pair of powerful binoculars. Two separate optical systems are joined together with a gear to focus two independent images into one three-dimensional view. To apply this analogy, let the scene on the left side of your binoculars represent your perception of your task. Let the picture on the right side represent the Lord’s perspective of your task—the portion of His plan He has entrusted to you. Now, connect your system to His. By mental adjustment, fuse your focus. Something wonderful happens. Your vision and His are now the same. You have developed an “eye single to the glory of God”. With that perspective, look upward—above and beyond mundane things about you. The Lord said, “Look unto me in every thought”. That special vision will also help clarify your wishes when they may be a bit fuzzy and out of focus with God’s hopes for your divine destiny. Indeed, the precise challenge you regard now as “impossible” may be the very refinement you need, in His eye.”

So having our eyes single to the glory of God means that we align our sight with what Christ sees and knows. Christ knows all that is going to happen and He knows when we are going to need His help and so Peter asking Christ to help him teaches us that when things are hard we shouldn’t look around at the world but look to Christ for help and guidance and if we do that, we will succeed!