GET OUT OF THE BOAT. FACE YOUR FEARS.
Jack Canfield once said, “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” And he’s right. But I’m going to take it one step further.
Pain, discomfort, shock, boredom, impostor syndrome, awkwardness, fear, being wrong, failing, ignorance, looking stupid: your avoidance of these feelings is stopping you from a life beyond your wildest imagination.
These are the feelings that accompany a life of success. And yet, these are the very feelings you relentlessly avoid!
As i write this article, it’s inspired by my very own journey which i started a couple of months ago and committed to facing my worst fears and doing everything I thought I couldn’t.
Matthew 14:22–33 is one of the power words that has played a major role in my journey. We read a story of Jesus walking on water and commanding one of his disciples to come to him, but because of doubting he started to sink.
Make the decision and act
Now, in verse 28 of Matthew 14, Peter who was one of the disciples says , “Lord, if it’s you, command me to come to you on the water.” Jesus answered, “Come,”. Then Peter got out of the boat, started walking on water and came toward Jesus. We see further in verse 30 that when peter saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”.
Peter began to look at what was beyond his control, could it be that's where some us are today? Are you looking at circumstances of life that you have no control over? Somehow have you taken your eyes off the lord Jesus and started to look at the circumstances of life?
In real life, the rules of normalcy says, stay in the boat, getting out of the boat is scary, getting out of boat may seem crazy and impossible but staying on the boat is easy, doing what everyone is doing is easy, but change is hard. How many of us stay in the boat without ever exercising faith and walking in fullness of what God has for our lives?
Peter wants to go to Jesus, because he know no matter how high the waves, how strong the wind or wet the water, its better to be out of the boat in a storm with Jesus than to be in the boat in a storm without Jesus.
The bible is telling us to act and not to be afraid of the storm, not to be afraid of change, to exercise faith as we realize our full potential because our lord Jesus will not allow us to sink.
If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got. What got you here, won’t get you there. If you want bold results, you need bold actions.
Fear limits your full potential
If you want it bad enough, your momentary feelings won’t stop you. How you feel right now is irrelevant. Of course it’s out of your comfort zone. Of course it may not feel good in the moment.
Said Tim Ferriss, “A person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have.” Are you willing to disregard your momentary feelings to achieve particular results?
Similarly, in Mathew as Peter tries to get out of the boat, I can hear the other disciples telling him, its impossible, he’ll get wet, its foolish, you’ll drown but Jesus says “come”.
The boat is the safest place to be, but peter was willing to face his fears, he was willing to take the risks and exercise his faith. When fear takes hold of our lives we usually turn to something that makes us feel safe.
So my question to you today is, what's your boat?
If you want to know what your boat is, your fear will tell you. Your boat is whatever represents safety and security to you apart from God. Just ask yourself, When fear turns in, where do i turn to apart from God. That's your boat. God is telling you today like Peter, come, seek God with all your heart and let him turn your fear into faith through trusting him alone.
Find courage, start small and refuse to stay in the boat
Life is practice. For you to walk on water you’ve to take the first a leap of faith and be courageous enough to walk on water,
I challenge you from here on out to constantly expand your vision as to what’s possible in your life because serve a God of the Impossible. The more we can see ourselves victorious and not being paralyzed by fear, the more that will prompt us to act and get going.
When you start, I can promise you , there will be a lot of naysayers, people are going to question you, someone is going to to think your are crazy someone is going to doubt you.
Whatever it is ,start with the small stuff and work your way up.
For me, taking cold showers is great practice. Even after doing it for years, I still often experience a moment of resistance. But I feel the resistance and do it anyways. Within seconds, the resistance I was feeling is replaced with confidence and satisfaction.
The more frequently you can confront and walk past emotional blocks, the more successful you’ll be.
And i promise you that as you find courage and start walking on water you’ll find yourself in situations that will make you ask yourself, “How did I get here? How am I going to pull this off?” But keep your eyes on Jesus and you will not sink, take the risks, do it anyway, anyhow and believe that you will do it. People who do great things and and achieve great things often make the move when its not the convenient time to make the move.
I celebrate the fact that God wants to help you do the impossible, but it requires you to get out of the boat because we serve a God that will help you walk on water, God will help you do supernaturally do what you can’t do.
You’ll need to put off momentary comforts in order to behave in ways that generate wild success. You can have anything you want in life. There is a path to get there. But you’ll have to face lots of resistance in getting there.
Do it anyways.
Right now.
Don’t delay.
Do something right now you’ve been procrastinating.
Do something right now that shocks your emotional system. You’ll quickly realize it wasn’t so bad.
Then do it again, with increasing intention.
Are you willing to go there?
Or, would you prefer feeling safe and regretful?
The choice is yours.
Final thoughts
Just because you can’t handle it, it doesn’t mean Jesus can’t handle it. The disciples were struggling in the boat but Jesus comes walking on water. What's the disciples are struggling with, Jesus has under his feet.
What we learn is, the Jesu didn’t send them out there to drown them but to teach them what's possible if they kept their eyes on Jesus. The reason God lets you get into storms is because there some things about God you can’t learn unless you are in a storm. You wouldn’t know what faith in God can do unless He’ll all you got.
I challenge you from here on out to constantly expand your vision as to what’s possible in your life. The more we can see ourselves victorious and not being paralyzed by fear, the more that will prompt us to act and get going.