You know, this passage of Jesus walking on water is like one of the famous classic scenes in the Gospels. We’ve known it since we were a kid. This is one of the great miracles of Jesus walking on water, calming the storm. It’s a beautiful passage to pray with. If you’re trying to kind of learn or get better at the technique of praying with Scripture, you might like to start with this passage, especially when it comes to trying to use your imagination and having God communicate to you through the Scriptures. This is what it means to pray with Scripture. Kind of put yourself in the scene, or maybe you see the scene as a metaphor for something going on in your life. We all have storms that come about. We all feel at times when we’re alone, maybe God seems distant.

You notice at the beginning of the Gospel, Jesus ordered the disciples to get onto the boat. He said, basically, “Leave me.” And Jesus, of course, knew that the storm was gonna come about. So he almost is sending them into the storm, sending them into this trial. And we’ve all maybe have had that kind of experience before. So you pray with it, and you bring it to God — the storms in your life. And ultimately, with Peter, your desire to be close to God. We don’t just want the storm to go away, but we want something to fill the void in our hearts.

That’s why Peter is a great model here. And so we pray with that desire for God. The storm has been calmed. He could just go back to the ship and back to fishing and trying to get to the other side. But he wants to be near Jesus. So he does something incredible. He walks on the water for the time being. And then, of course, we know what happens to Peter. He begins to sink once he takes his eyes off the Lord. When he starts noticing the wind and the storm around him, or the fact that he’s doing something very powerful, kind of looking back where he’s come from, that’s when he goes down.

So for us, we do amazing things in your life through the grace of God. “All things are possible with God’s grace.” That’s what Paul says to the Romans here. We have to keep our focus on him because there’s always going to be distractions — things that are going to make us doubt ourselves or we’re going to be afraid, think it’s impossible to do this thing, and we begin to sink. But again, we keep our eyes on our Lord. We can do the miracle. And so the miracle happens throughout our lives.

And then, so finally, just to connect it to Elijah real quick, because he went through a similar storm in his life. He was being hunted down by the king and the queen of Israel. He’s the last remaining prophet left for the time being. And he goes into this cave. And when he’s in this cave, the cave is a model of prayer. Remember, Jesus is praying in the cave when he sees the storm. When we pray, we go into our cave. So Elijah goes into his cave. He’s depressed. He’s afraid. He’s got all these emotions going on. He doesn’t give up, but he relates it to God. And then God speaks to him. Of course, God speaks to him in that silent whispering voice.

So for us, can we find our caves today? Can we find our caves this week, give our hearts to God, and be given the strength to continue the journey? Amen.