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When growing up most of us are used to maintaining the status quo. We have family and cultural traditions and a lot of us develop a seasonal routine. By a seasonal routine I mean that we get used to certain times for vacations, family events, and the like. One of the biggest routines that can get us in trouble, in my opinion, is religion. Some Christians say that they don’t need reasons or explanations for what they believe, because they have “faith like a child” or “childlike faith.” When they say this, they mean that they don’t ask questions about their beliefs, nor do they wonder if what they believe is true. Childlike faith is often described as a faith that does not doubt, question, or seek explanations; it just believes.

Am I suggesting that your faith is wrong? No, not at all. Throughout the apostle Paul’s letters he’s always telling us to test the spirits. In other words make sure our beliefs are consistent with what is written in Scripture. It is imperative that sometimes we leave our comfort zone to make sure that what we do believe is the truth and that we are not believing it just because we were told to. There are beliefs that go back a long time and have been passed down through the centuries that are not scripturally sound but nonetheless are believed as gospel, although wrong.

Growing up the first twenty-five years of my life I was raised a Quaker but then I got married at thirty to an Italian woman and I converted to Catholicism. Here are two religions that both call themselves Christian, but their beliefs are totally opposite on a majority of subjects. It was at this point that my comfort zone was shattered and I became very confused about what the truth really was. It was this crisis in my life that led me to research for sixteen years for the truth and write my first book, “The Mysteries of the Bible, the Seal of God”.

James 1:5-7 says “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord”

In the story of Jesus walking on water in John 6:19, there is an underlying lesson that I think is missed in a majority of the interpretations. Here is a brief Recap of the story. After feeding the 5,000, Jesus sent his disciples on ahead of him in a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee. Several hours later in the night, the disciples encountered a storm that frightened them. Then they witnessed Jesus walking toward them across the surface of the water, and their fear turned to terror because they believed they were seeing a ghost.  As recounted in Matthew verse 27, Jesus told them, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Peter replied, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water,” and Jesus invited Peter to do exactly that. Peter jumped out of the boat and began walking on the water toward Jesus, but the moment he took his eyes off of Jesus, Peter saw nothing but the wind and waves, and he started to sink. Peter cried out to the Lord, and Jesus immediately reached out his hand to catch him. As Jesus and Peter climbed into the boat together, the storm ceased. After witnessing this miracle, the disciples worshiped Jesus, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

In this story when Peter says to the Lord “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water,” and then does so, he realizes, after the first couple steps, that he is totally out of his comfort zone, because he has always been told that that is impossible to walk on water.  Peter did not begin to sink until he started looking around at the wind and the waves. For Christians, the lesson is that when they take their eyes off of Jesus and focus on their difficult circumstances, they begin to sink under the weight of our problems. Peter did not begin to sink until he started looking around at the wind and the waves, (the ways of the world). For Christians, the lesson is that when they take their eyes off of Jesus and focus on their difficult circumstances, they begin to sink under the weight of their problems. If we cry out to Jesus in faith, he will catch us by the hand and raise us above seemingly impossible surroundings.

We must realize that regardless of how far out of our comfort zone we get, if  we focus on Jesus, He will always be there to bail us out as long as we are faithful to Him.