When I was little, I remember being at the swimming pool with our family and sometimes my father would stand in the pool and encourage me to jump from the edge of the pool into his arms. As a child you have a dilemma – you love and trust your parent, but you’re scared of the water and what might happen if they don’t catch you. It’s about trust.
You may have had a similar experience yourself, ultimately it’s just some family fun, but there is a valuable lesson in it. When your trust and love for your parent exceeds your fear of that water and what might happen, that’s when you get the motivation and develop the courage to jump! The Christian life can be similar to this. Everything we do flows from our relationship with God and there are times when He will require us to trust him just that little bit more.
People ask me about the miracles we see in our ministry and why we see them. I believe miracles happen when we trust God so much that he steps in and intervenes and catches us! When Peter walked on water, he was the only one in the boat willing to take a step of faith and walk on the water towards Jesus. He was also the only one to see the miracle power of God demonstrated on his behalf in that moment! (Matthew 14)
Miracles happen when we step out of the boat and trust Jesus. 2 Chronicles 16:9 tells us “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” When we’re totally committed, when we’re all in, that’s when we see God step in and do miracles. So many times in this ministry we have stepped out of the boat, walked out on a limb, with no one else but God to depend on and I can say we have seen God come through and do miracles!
And God will come through for you, you just have to be willing to step out a little when you sense the leading of the Holy Spirit. I love this quote by Theodore Roosevelt “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Today I want to encourage you to live boldly, trust God like you never have before. Dare to believe, take that step of faith and trust God! As you step into the unknown, and dare to dream and believe, as you step out onto the water, that’s where you will see God do miracles! Don’t you give up, God will come through for you!
