Seeing the Wind

"But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"" (Matthew 14:30 NAS95)

Observation:  How do you see the wind?  

Mmm... One can see the spray that the wind kicks up.  One can see the choppy waves.  And one can feel its force... but, how does one see the wind.  One doesn't.

Jesus said this about the wind:

"The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going"  (John 3:8).

Honestly, we can see and hear the effects of the wind, but we do not see and hear the wind itself.  We can only feel it.  And it is by faith that we acknowledge that feeling as wind.

In the same way we can see and hear the effects of God's power but we do not always see and hear God himself; it is only by faith that we know He is working.

Why all this philosophy?  Because Peter put his faith in the wind.  Looking around at the waves, feeling their spray blasting against his face, the fisherman allowed himself to be distracted from Jesus.  He looked to his circumstances rather than looking to His Savior.  All He could see was: Wind.

Application:  What am I looking at, and believing in?  Does Jesus have my faith or does the wind have my faith.  I think of what James wrote to the church:

"But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." (James 1:5–8 NAS95)

Prayer:  Lord make me a single minded man.  When I feel the wind, let me look to Jesus and not to the rolling waves.  Turn my fears to faith and my troubles to trust.  In every difficulty let me hear a call to prayer.  And when I'm tempted to speak doubt, teach me to talk faith.