I had a lovely afternoon with a dear friend a few days ago and while we were just sharing and encouraging each other, this statement came out of my mouth and would not leave my mind: Our victory is in our focus.

The more I meditate on those words, the more I am blessed by them.

The average believer believes, knows a lot about what the bible teaches on various topics, and knows a scripture or two regarding certain situations, yet when push comes to shove (when real life happens and they are faced with unprecedented situations or things that seem to be beyond their depth) they panic and crumble.

When life happens in this way, it sometimes leaves us really shaken and at times even frantically changing course. Why is this if I may ask? The Bible already prepares us; giving us a heads up about things that may come against us as a result of our belief, or just by virtue of being in the world and yet when these things arise, we can easily find ourselves going under.

I have discovered that in a lot of cases, the singular reason is obviously not the word, nor is it the situations fighting for our attention or fighting to bring us under, but rather it is our focus—where our gaze is— and herein lies our victory or defeat!
“But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”
Matthew 14:30 NKJV
This is one of the accounts in the Bible that explains so much of what a lot of Christians experience today in their walk. Some people are presently engaged in stormy situations in life, be it in their marriage, regarding their health, businesses, or just general walk of life. Some of those storms were not self-induced but, on the contrary, arose unexpectedly and unprovoked. Even in the cases where they were self-induced, the recipe for success is still the same. The question is: how do you handle the daily storms that come up against you and your walk towards progress? Because life certainly does not stop when it sees a storm approaching.

The verse above is quite interesting in the sense that the moment in which Peter saw the storm was actually different to the time when the storm started. In verse 24, it said the boat was in the middle of the sea being tossed by the storm. In the earlier verse 22 we know that the disciples were in the boat. Now from the time they got in the boat, to the time the storm arose, and then to the time Jesus got to them walking on water, time would have certainly passed by, but nothing in particular was said about Peter except for the fact that they were all afraid when they saw Jesus walking on water. Let’s not forget that some of these men were fishermen by profession, so stormy seas would have been one of the perks of the profession so to speak.

Jumping to verse 28, Peter says to Jesus: If it is you, command me to come. An interesting thing to note here is that Jesus did not neglect them in the storm. He didn’t say, ‘oh they are used to storms, having all these years of experience at sea. I will just stand aside and let them deal with this one’. No. He didn’t do that. He came to them in the midst of the storm. Never let the devil lie to you telling you that you are forsaken, that you are alone, that you are by yourself. Even in your most experienced endeavour, God is still there to guide you and help you.

So, Peter obeys the words of Jesus and walks on water…until verse 30 happens and Peter sees the storm… Hang on! There was no record of the storm stopping at any point during this whole encounter so how is it that Peter is only now seeing the storm when the storm had been there all along?

PETER’S FOCUS CHANGED.

What you see in the midst of your trial is so so important. It is THE determining factor. If you keep your focus on the word and the truth, you will go through the worst of storms and come out enriched and empowered but if you focus on the storms surrounding you, you will drown in them and end up depressed, broken and ready to throw in the towel. But thank God for Jesus! There is help available when you cry out.

Look to Jesus and He will lead you through the storm.