Being a girl that’s lived in the same city her whole life and only traveling to a few places, God asking me to travel to 11 countries in 11 months was the scariest thing I had ever been asked to do. This is coming from a girl that used to do a double back flip off a bar, and back handsprings on a 10-inch beam 4 feet off the ground. Fear is not in my daily vocabulary, but it was the day I was accepted into the world race. The money is too big of a number, that’s too long of a trip, I wont know anyone, I need to finish school. God is bigger. He is bigger than my fears, He is bigger than my doubt, He is bigger than my mediocre life. He is living within me. He has called me to be bigger than my fear.
Now flash back a few weeks. Before I finished my interview I was eating lunch with my grandpa and I asked him what bible story or analogy he has found most relatable to his life and situations in his life. He answered with the prodigal son. He went on to explain why then finished the discussion with asking me the same question. So this was my answer:
Well I always find myself relating to Peter walking on the water with Jesus for many reasons. There was a season of my life where I stayed in the boat and took on the waves and storm without Jesus, I found it rough and stressful. Then I learned that to be closer to Jesus I had to get out of the boat and embrace the waves and like Peter I sometime took my eyes off Jesus and sank into my own world, my own knowledge and my own desire to have control. More recently I have learned to walk on the water in the waves, take on the storm with my eye fixed on Jesus yet still knowing that when I fail He is immediately there to pull me up.
I always recognized that story when I went through a trial in my life but saying it out loud to my grandpa that day made it stick fresh in my head until the day I received a phone call in class I had been anxiously awaiting telling me I was accepted. As I drove home from class that day my mind took me places that were filled with fear, doubt and anxiety. And before reaching my house I found my self crying out to God saying You are bigger, You are greater, I will fix my eyes on You. That moment I recognized God was not feeding me with fear, doubt and anxiety. He was the one calling me out of the boat, He was the one filling my spirit with peace in the mist of the storm. God knew that by me saying it out loud would play a huge role in the day I would find out I was accepted. Not only has it played a huge role that day but every day after that I constantly have to remind myself of that story and cast my care on to Him to keep my eyes fixed on His presence.
Now you may relate to the story of Peter walking on the water like I do, or you may relate to the prodigal son like my grandpa, maybe neither of them, but I challenge you the sit back, think of times in your life God blessed your life even in the smallest of ways and think of a story or a parable Jesus spoke in the bible that you relate to.
