Moving Beyond the Wilderness
A church hired a new pastor. Over the protests of one vocal male member a woman was hired as the new pastor. After the new pastor had been there a few weeks, several of members of the congregation offered to take the new pastor on a fishing trip, treating her like a member of the ole boys club in the church. The vocal objector reluctantly agreed to allow them to use his boat and to go along. They got into the boat and motored out on the lake. When they got ready to fish, they realized that all their tackle had been left on the dock. One of the men commented that they would just have to go back and get it. The new pastor said that wouldn’t be necessary, and she got out of the boat and started walking across the water toward the dock. The vocal male who had objected to her coming said, “See I told you we never should have brought her fishing. She can’t even swim!”
Sometimes no matter what miracles we see, it does not get us beyond the wastelands in our lives. When we are able to move beyond the wastelands of life I call it moving beyond the wilderness. We move beyond the wilderness by overcoming our fears and deepening our faith. As usual there is always a problem. I see that problem as claiming to be following Christ but not being able to get beyond the wilderness experiences in our life. Anything that takes us to the dark night of our soul is a wilderness experience. If we don’t learn how to move beyond the rough places in our life to where Jesus can save us we will sooner or later sink in despair and misery and lose our chance for everlasting life.
The Bible says, “Then he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.” This is a key point to be understood. Even the “Son of Man,” God’s Son, prepared for the miracles He did and received through prayer and meditation. The Scripture says, “When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was many furlongs distant from the land,” (At least a mile – one furlong = 220 yards) it says a great storm came up; the text says the boat was, “beaten by the waves; for the wind was against them. (Here is the start of the wilderness experience, ‘the storm’).” The Scripture says, “And in the fourth watch (Dark hour of the soul) of the night (3 a.m.-6 a.m.) Jesus “came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.” But immediately He spoke to them, saying, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear. And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you,” (Peter had been with Jesus all this time and still did not believe wholeheartedly. He said, “Lord if it is you”) bid me come to you on the water.” All Jesus said was, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus; But here is the essence of the wilderness experiences for Peter and for us, “but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink.” he cried out, “Lord, save me.“ Now our text, “Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, (helped Peter overcome his fear) saying to him, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?” Jesus allowed Peter to deepen his faith and helped peter and the disciples to move beyond the wilderness in their life in those terrible moments to the other side of their fear and despair. He does the same for us when we move from fear to faith.
Here is the point: There are two ways to move beyond the wilderness. One, by allowing Jesus to help us overcome our fears and two, daily by deepening our faith through prayer and meditation. We all have or will have wilderness experiences. We will seek to go across to the other side of our problems, situations, and circumstances that turn our life upside down. It could be money, loss of a job, family and children or grandchildren, relationships, marriages gone badly! It may be the loss of a dear love one. I dread this thought in my own life. My dear mother is approaching a frail age. Though she is not sick, I know her number and our own is coming up. It could be health, mental or physical, just depression and loneliness. Whatever it is, Jesus is the rescue. I know this because like the disciples and Peter, I have been tossed by the storms of life and feared for my life. I have been down in the valley of sadness, misery and trepidation. Thank God that Jesus came to me walking on the water of my problems! He reached out His hands and caught me when I was sinking. He admonished me to deepen my faith. Today I am a new man because He lived. Today He continues to live in me.
