The Bible tells us in Hebrews 11:6 that without faith it is impossible to please God. The only prerequisite to knowing God is that we believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them who diligently seek Him.
God loves crazy, radical faith. Faith is believing what the Bible says about who God is and what He is capable of doing. Crazy, radical faith is believing that you and I can have a part in what He is doing. How many of us are willing to do something for God that maybe He hasn’t clearly asked us to do?
Consider the time when Jesus walked on water. In Matthew 14 we are told that the disciples saw Someone walking on the water in the middle of a storm and were afraid. They thought they were seeing a ghost. The fact that they automatically assumed it was a ghost tells me one of two things. Either seeing ghosts walk on water was a common occurrence, or their fear caused them to come to irrational conclusions. I believe the latter was the case. Our fears always lead us to draw irrational conclusions which cripple us from moving forward for the Lord. When Christ called out to assure them that it was indeed He himself, their fears were put to rest. In other words, they believed Jesus. They believed His word. Given who Jesus was and what he was capable of, it was rational to accept by faith that He was walking on water.
It is easy to believe that Jesus was able to walk on water while seated in the safe confines of the boat. Enter Peter. As was his custom, he is about to do something crazy—at least by human standards. He wasn’t about to let the Lord to have all the fun. “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water” (Matthew 14:28). How many of us have crazy, radical faith like Peter. Would you have asked the Lord, “If it’s really You, and if you allow it Jesus, I’m jumping out of the boat and joining You!”
Notice that Jesus had not asked nor commanded Peter to join him on the water. Peter’s radical faith and his identification with Jesus led him to do what had not even crossed the minds of the other disciples. Like Peter, my friend and I came up with a crazy idea when we were in college and God blessed it. We decided we would just pick a country where there were few to no missionaries and go there. We said: “Lord, I’m gonna choose a random country out of this hat and go there.” How did we justify this method of decision making. Simple, Jesus commands us to go. So we decided we are going to step out of the boat and go.
How many times have I heard people close to me reason with me when I was a young perspective missionary: “Why go to Africa, there is a need here in America. We need you here.” I know they are well meaning. I know they believe God is at work around the world. I know they give to missions and love and support missionaries who go. But when someone close to them, inside their boat, says they are jumping ship and going to walk on water (going to the foreign mission field, for example) those who are left in the boat are left scratching their heads. “Why jump out? We need you here. God could really use you as a pastor or evangelist here in America.”
Why jump out of the boat onto the water?
Because Jesus is there.
Because He told us to go and going should be the first consideration not the last option.
We jump out and go because there are already enough workers in the boat to keep it going. We jump out of the boat and go because there is something in our heart that tells us that God has something more for us—something great and exciting and terrifying and hard—waiting for us. Going to the foreign mission field might seem as terrifying as the thought of walking on water in a storm; but if Jesus is there, then there is no better and safer place to be!