“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.” Mark 12:30
All of me, because He loves me with all of Him. Everything in response to everything.
I’ve been thinking lately about Jesus walking on the water and Peter coming out to meet Him.
“Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea . . .
. . . And Peter answered Him and said, ‘Lord if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.’
So He said ‘Come.’
And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.” Matthew 14:25, 28-29
Every time I read this passage, it breaks me. All it takes is the simple invitation to ‘Come’ from Jesus, and Peter is already scrambling out of the boat ready to face the impossible to get to Jesus. The thing is, I don’t even think Peter was aware that he needed to walk on water to meet Jesus because so desperately passionate was he to meet with the Lord. Impossible circumstances seem secondary to the deep cry of our heart to be with God.
An all-consuming desire for God. A heart that longs for the Lord. Oh, to be in love with the Savior of the world!
Here’s a question I’ve been asking myself: What’s keeping me in the boat? Is it co-dependent relationships, fear, a control spirit? I never want to hold on to a thing or person so tightly that it would hinder me from leaping out of the proverbial boat to meet Jesus.
“While I can, I sail east in the Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I paddle east in my coracle. When she sinks, I shall swim east with my four paws. And when I can swim no longer, if I have not reached Aslan’s country, or shot over the edge of the world in some vast cataract, I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise . . .” –Reepicheep, Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader
