The disciples waved from the boat and watched as Jesus returned to the crowds. He taught a lot that day and had to be exhausted. The twelve ran around to keep everything in order while he spoke and they were beyond tired. They were ready for a couple of hours in a boat with no people around. They were all ready for some rest. None of them really fell asleep but they definitely weren’t making any efforts to stay awake, either. Waves slapped against the side of the boat but it wasn’t anything to worry about at that point in the evening.

JESUS!

The impulse of a recognized oversight jolted John from his daze. He sat up as he yelled and startled everyone else with the exclamation. “We never figured out where we’d meet Him!”

“Dude. He always finds us. If He wanted to ditch us, He would have done it by now.”

Most of them looked at each other and nodded at Andrew’s statement and returned to their previous attempts at relaxation. The rest of the night passed in the kind of slumber that one could expect in a boat on choppy water. It wasn’t anything that would keep them from Gennesaret, but amounted to a rough enough ride that sleep was almost  impossible.

What the deuce? It’s a ghost!

A couple of the others echoed this cry as they watched a form approach them on the water. They had been around Jesus long enough to see some pretty freaky things, especially when it came to the whole exercising demons thing. None of them would have been surprised at a random manifestation like this. It continued to approach and when it got close enough, said,

Don’t be a bunch of wimps, it’s me!

(Jake translation)

Amazingly, Peter stood on the rocking boat and yelled back at the form who claimed to be his Rabbi and Lord,

Jesus, if it’s really you, tell me to walk to you on the water!

Jesus couldn’t have responded any better. All He had to say was,

Come.

Jesus wasn’t more than a few steps away at this point. Regardless, the disciple shot out of the boat. He thought that running on the water could help him stay on top of it. Haven’t we all thought this way at one point or another? He made it far enough for his compatriots to realize they were witnessing another miracle. After that, Peter began to sink. Fortunately, Jesus was close enough to grab him and drag him back to the boat. It was actually pretty awkward. Jesus was walking on the water, but had to bend down to keep his grip on Peter who was half-submerged and panicked when he got some saltwater up his nose. The waves were crashing and it seriously looked like someone was going to get hurt. But with the complete composure that Jesus always seemed to have, he looked down at the thrashing man and said,

Peter. You had faith, but what happened?

★                   ★                    ★

Jesus called His disciple out of the boat. Peter had to ask first. He saw a situation where he could do something amazing and knew that his Lord would get the glory. Of course Jesus knew it was going to happen like this. He had been thinking about it all night. He saw it when He told the twelve to go on without Him. He talked to the Father about it when He went up to the mountain to pray. Jesus was excited because He knew what would happen, He knew that He’d get to experience Peter’s faith in rare form that night.

Your faith excites God.

Jesus believes in you.

That doesn’t mean you’re exempt from looking, initiating, asking, believing.

Maybe you need to ask God about stepping out.