“But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord”. James 1:6-7

The passage of James 1:7 explains the state of someone who doubts and the explanation of that state is that the one who doubts is unstable in his life and that person has no right to expect something from God. One can then have faith and miss the blessing from God just because our faith is not stable. This means one can have faith at a precise moment but five minutes later our faith disappears. The book of Matthew provides evidence of such a state.

The text in Matthew 14:22-33 shows Jesus walking in the water and at the same time shows a state of instability in the life of Peter from which we can learn some lessons. In the New Testament, apart from the passage where Peter denied Jesus, it is not easy to find Peter showing a sign of fear. We have seen him the majority of the time demonstrate courage. Indeed, he displayed the same sign of courage when he saw Jesus walking on water. Of the twelve disciples in the boat with the wind against them, he was the only one that asked for permission from Jesus to imitate him: “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” (Matthew 14:28). Peter then took courage from the word of Jesus and started walking on the water as Jesus did. However, the scene turned almost into a disaster at the moment when Peter was beginning to sink. The good news is that Jesus gave us the reason why Peter sank: “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”. From the answer of Jesus, it is clear that the doubt of Peter was his obstacle to dominate the water. The same Peter who had faith to jump on the water, lost faith a few seconds later when he saw the wind. There is no doubt that Peter is a man of Faith, but it is fair to say that, at that particular moment, his faith was unstable. I hope your faith does not vacillate depending on the wind of your environment?

May God give us the strength to keep our faith stable regardless of our environment.