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What if the greatest obstacle to your faith isn’t the storm you’re facing—but how you’re trying to survive it?
Life’s greatest storms often reveal where our deepest trust truly rests.Don’t have time to read? Listen to the podcast!
Learning to swim is a strange experience.
Every instinct tells you to cling to the edge of the pool. Your instructor keeps saying, “Relax. Trust the water. Trust me.”
But no one learns to swim by holding onto the wall.
Sooner or later, you have to let go.
The Christian life is much the same.
When fear comes, we ask God to remove the storm. Often, He teaches us to trust Him in the middle of it instead.
That is the quiet wisdom behind this Sunday’s prayer. We ask God to give us the increase of faith, hope, and love—and then we ask something even deeper:
“Make us love what you command.”
Notice the direction of that prayer.
We are not promising to become more faithful.
We are asking God to make us so.
That is grace.
It is also the thread running through today’s readings. Jonah cannot rescue himself. Peter cannot keep himself afloat. Paul cannot produce Christlike love by sheer determination.
Again and again, God does for His people what they cannot do for themselves.
He still does.
Faith Begins Where Self-Reliance Ends
Faith begins the moment we stop trusting ourselves.Jonah and Peter could hardly be more different.
Jonah runs from God.
Peter steps toward Jesus.
One is swallowed by a great fish.
The other steps onto the sea.
Yet both discover the same truth:
Faith begins where self-reliance ends.
From the depths, Jonah prays,
“Salvation belongs to the LORD!” (Jonah 2:9, ESV).
From the waves, Peter cries,
“Lord, save me.” (Matthew 14:30, ESV).
Sometimes our finest prayers are our shortest.
Matthew tells us what happened next:
“Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him” (Matthew 14:31, ESV).
Immediately.
Not after Peter proved himself.
Not after he promised to do better.
Immediately.
Peter is often remembered for sinking.
Perhaps he should be remembered for stepping out of the boat.
The other eleven disciples never did.
Peter failed while obeying Jesus.
There is a profound difference between failing because you stepped out in faith and never stepping out at all.
Augustine wrote,
“Our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
Peter’s heart became restless the moment he looked at the wind instead of Christ.
So do ours.
Our eyes drift to medical reports, bank accounts, broken relationships, or uncertain futures.
The wind becomes louder than the Savior.
Yet Jesus still reaches for us.
The good news is not that Peter had extraordinary faith.
The good news is that Peter had an extraordinary Savior.
Recommended Resource: Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund – A beautiful reminder that Christ responds to weak and struggling believers with compassion, not condemnation.
Hope Hears God’s Voice Above the Storm
Hope shines brightest when the storm is darkest.Storms amplify fear.
Psalm 29 amplifies God’s voice.
“The voice of the LORD is over the waters… The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty” (Psalm 29:3–4, ESV).
For Israel, the sea represented chaos and everything beyond human control.
Yet God’s voice ruled even there.
Matthew shows us that truth in flesh and blood.
Jesus doesn’t simply calm the sea.
He walks across it.
The Lord whose voice rules the waters comes walking over the very thing His disciples fear.
Before He stills the storm, He speaks:
“Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid” (Matthew 14:27, ESV).
Christian hope does not rest on calmer circumstances.
It rests on Christ’s presence.
John Chrysostom observed that Peter was allowed to sink so he would learn that his safety rested not in himself but in Christ.
That lesson is ours as well.
Sometimes God calms the storm.
Sometimes He calms His children.
Sometimes He simply reminds us that the One walking upon the waves is greater than the waves themselves.
Recommended Resource: Walking with God through Pain and Suffering by Timothy Keller – A wise and compassionate guide to finding enduring hope in God’s character when life doesn’t unfold as expected.
Love Learns to Desire What God Desires
Grace changes what our hearts long for.If faith teaches us to trust Christ and hope teaches us to rest in His promises, today’s prayer points to an even deeper work of grace.
It asks God to “make us love what you command.”
Most of us would pray, “Lord, help me obey.”
The prayer asks for something greater.
It asks God to change our desires.
Paul shows us what that looks like.
He writes,
“I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart” (Romans 9:2, ESV).
He is grieving for the very people who have rejected their Messiah.
The man who once persecuted the Church now weeps for those who refuse Christ.
Grace has changed not only Paul’s beliefs.
It has changed his loves.
C. S. Lewis observed,
“Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.”
Our lives follow what we love.
That is why the Holy Spirit’s deepest work is not simply changing our behavior.
It is changing our hearts.
Over time, we become quicker to forgive, readier to serve, and more willing to trust—not because we have become stronger people, but because Christ is making us new.
That is the miracle the Collect teaches us to seek.
Not merely changed circumstances.
Changed hearts.
Recommended Resource: You Are What You Love by James K. A. Smith – Smith explains how Christian formation reshapes our deepest desires, making it a fitting companion to the Collect’s prayer that God would teach us to love what He commands.
Conclusion — Held by the One Who Walks on Water
The storm passes. Christ remains.Learning to swim begins by letting go.
The Christian life does too.
God increases our faith until we trust Christ more than ourselves.
He strengthens our hope until His promises speak louder than our fears.
He deepens our love until we begin to delight in what delights Him.
None of that begins with us.
It begins with grace.
That is the story woven through today’s readings.
Jonah did not save himself.
Peter did not hold himself above the waves.
Paul did not transform his own heart.
Again and again, God does for His people what they cannot do for themselves.
Perhaps today you feel more like Peter than you would like to admit. The wind has your attention. The waves seem stronger than your faith.
Hear again the words of Jesus:
“Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid” (Matthew 14:27, ESV).
Your hope has never rested in the strength of your grip on Christ.
It rests in the strength of His grip on you.
The One who walked on the water still walks toward His people.
He still reaches out His hand.
He still gives the increase of faith, hope, and love.
And He is still making us love what He commands.
Trust Him.
He is already holding you.
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