Take His Hand

A guest post by: Christine Laporte
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast”.
(1 Peter 5:10)
In service last week, our pastor talked about Peter taking his eyes off of the Lord when he was walking on the water. Realizing that he was doing something supernatural, he doubted his ability to stay above water, and fell into its depths. The Pastor suggested something about Peter that I hadn’t heard before. Peter could have refocused on the Lord, and got back up onto the surface of the water to walk back to the boat.
Even the possibility of Peter getting back on top of the water is an important lesson for us as His followers. When we take our eyes off our Savior and suffer the consequences of doing so, we don’t have to stay there. This is another example of how “it’s not over, til it’s over. Meaning, that as long as we are alive, God gives us the opportunity to get up after we fall, come back after we walk away and rest when we’re exhausted.

The longer a Christian “dwells in the shelter of the most High” (Psalm 91:1), the more apparent the deep love of God is to them. I remember a couple of years ago, after the Lord came through for my family once more, I said, “God does not have to prove His love to me anymore”. Being faithful to Himself, the Lord fulfills promise after promise. And, one of the ways He does this is to help us get back up out of the depths of the water, strengthen us and lead us once again back into “the boat”. He guides us on our way and even redeems the time and resources we may have squandered.
The deep waters we find ourselves in can be a broken trust, a strained relationship, dominating sin, repetitive habit, loss of one’s health or financial security, just to mention a few (examples). Regardless of the circumstance, as we look to Him, he can “repay you for the years the locusts have eaten” (Joel 2:25).

In 1 Peter, 5:10, we read “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast”. When I read this verse I see two things: first, God knows we are going to suffer because the writer penned “after” [you have suffered]; second, it will be the Lord (and not us) who restores us (He himself). We couldn’t be in better, more capable, wise hands.

In Isaiah 26:3, we read, “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you”. Therefore, we keep our mind (thoughts, decisions, reasonings) steadfast. In this Bible Commentary by Pastor Chuck Smith, we read,
“How can I know that perfect peace of God within my heart living in a world that’s so filled with chaos, turmoil, strivings? How can I know that peace? “Whose mind is stayed on Thee.” Now you can’t really experience the peace of God as you’re getting, looking constantly at the things of the world. You have to look away from the trials. You have to look away from the madness of this world and looking to Him. Keep your mind steadfast upon Him. How many times the Lord has to bring my mind back to Him. I start getting all upset. I can so excited, in turmoil. “Look what they’re doing! They can’t do that. I’m not…” The Lord says, “Hey, wait a minute. Who’s running this thing?” “You are, Lord.” “Then what are you all excited about?” “I don’t know. Just like to get excited, I guess.”
Next time, dear follower of Christ, you start to sink, look up to your Savior, call out to His Spirit and take His hand as he pulls you back to safety.