Matthew 14 is an amazing chapter. I encourage you to read it in its entirety, but here is a summary.

Herod kills John the Baptist and then wonders if Jesus is John the Baptist risen from the grave. When Jesus hears of John the Baptist’s death, he goes to a desert place to be alone. However, the multitudes follow Him, but don’t bring provisions. The disciples come to Jesus to have Him send the people away to get something to eat, but Jesus asks the disciples to feed them. The disciples had only five loaves and two fish to feed the 5,000 men plus the women and children. That was enough for Jesus. He fed the multitude with food left over.

Jesus then sent His disciples away in a boat and told them He would meet them on the other side. Jesus went into the mountain to pray while His disciples were struggling against a storm in the boat. He didn’t come to them, walking on the water, until the fourth watch of the night. The disciples had been battling the storm for some time and were quite frightened by the man walking on the water. Jesus tells them not to fear.

Peter has a hint of faith and tells Jesus to ask him to come out on the water if it is really Him. Jesus calls Peter to come on out. Then, reality sets in with Peter; he looks at the storm and begs for Jesus to save Him. Jesus reaches out His hand and saves Peter. As soon as they step into the boat, the storm ends. The disciples then worship Jesus, realizing anew that He is the Son of God. Upon arrival on the other side, the crowds once again came, bringing all who were sick with them.

Whew! That was a day. There are so many lessons here. But these verses stood out to me today: “³⁰ But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. ³¹ And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”

Peter saw what was happening and panicked. He was definitely not trusting in that moment. Yet, he still cried out to the Lord. What was Jesus’ response? He immediately put out His hand to Peter. He does reprimand Peter for his lack of faith, but you can feel the love emanating from that verse? It didn’t matter that Peter was overwhelmed with the storm. Jesus reaches out His hand to save Him.

Oh, so often I am overwhelmed with all that is happening. Yet, Jesus reaches out to save us as well, not just in salvation, but in our daily walk. Oh, our Precious Jesus!