"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord - And whose trust is the Lord." Jeremiah 17:7
I love faith stories. They are a contrast to simple mathematics, measurements of abilities and relying on our senses. In elementary school we were taught, and many of us learned, the importance of the equal sign and values that were similar. It was important to calculate each side carefully and literally count each digit.
As for our abilities, we learned to compare a project or a situation with what we already knew to be true about our past experiences of strength and coordination. We became sensitive to our consistency of follow through and the previous measures of gauging our physical strength, mental capacities, and coordinating the processing of all these things. We also learned to trust our five senses. What it felt and tasted like gave us insights into our comfortability with it. The smell gave us insights for wanting to use our taste, and the pleasure of our eyes gave us confidence as well.
Faith is not a calculation and it is not a guaranteed result - it is more like a step of hope - leaving things in the hand of something or someone other than personal human calculation and control.
Peter experienced two amazing elements of faith in one day about 5 minutes apart. The first was a calculated one where he thinks he might see Jesus. But the noise of the waves is a distraction for him knowing confidently that it is Jesus. He is willing to trust Jesus but needs confirmation it is the Lord. He actually takes an unbelievable step of literal faith and walks on the water. Yet quickly his algebraic calculations and previous experiences of walking in the seashore come to mind and he sinks. Distractions and human reasoning took over, and faith became a flop- almost a belly flop.
But within moments he found himself quickly trusting the hand of Jesus. There was no scuba gear, no ladders, no individual floatation devices - just a hand and just Jesus. I think he probably either walked on again or rode on the back of Jesus who was walking on water. Either one is a story of amazing faith.
I am asking God to allow my faith to grow and trust Him more than my math and calculus skills, my previous measures of abilities, and my five senses - I am asking to trust the never-ending sovereignty of God who has complete power, complete presence and never-ending knowledge. And then leaving the results to Him.
