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Keep your eyes on Jesus
By Pastor Ken Smith

There is a story in Matthew 14 about an encounter that the Apostle Peter had with Jesus. The disciples were out in a boat during a storm and Jesus came walking on the water to put them at ease. When Peter saw Jesus he asked Him to let him walk on the water to Him. Sure enough, Peter started walking on the water. Way to go Peter. But when he saw the strong wind, he was afraid and began to sink (v30). What happened was that as long as Peter kept his eyes on Jesus, his faith was strong; but when he took his eyes off of Him his faith wavered.

We often find ourselves in the same type of situation. Jesus will give us direction and we start following Him. The first hint of a storm, in our case something that distracts us from what we were doing, and we take our eyes off of Jesus and lose heart.Where do you think the storms in life come from? The enemy, the devil, wants more than anything for the Christian to take their eyes off of Jesus and the mission that He has us on. He wants to distract us and discourage us until we can no longer see Jesus in what we are doing. It's the same trick we use on our kids. When they want something that we don't want them to have, we simply put something else in their hands to distract them. It gets their mind off of what they wanted while we get it out of the room.

Peter "cried saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, and caught him (v31)." Have the cares of this life and the storms of this world got you distracted? Do you feel like you are sinking? Don't be distracted and deceived. God has a plan and a mission for your life. Why not get your eyes back on the Master's plan today. Thank you Jesus that you are as close as the mention of your name.

Ken Smith is pastor at Hickory Grove Church. Pray for our nation to seek God

Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple...Matthew 4:5 Pd. Adv.