In Matthew 14:22-31 we have one of the more familiar miracles of Jesus Christ. Here, Jesus is walking on the water and asks Peter to do the same. Peter is so full of faith and so eager to be with Jesus, he steps out of the boat and walks towards Jesus.

Peter is looking at Jesus, he wants to be with Jesus and he is focused on Jesus, and because of that faith he is walking towards Jesus on the water.

However, when we read verse 30 we find Peter became distracted with the storm. He looked away from Jesus and noticed what was happening around him. When Peter did that he lost his faith and began to sink.

This is a valuable lesson to us. If we wish to approach God we can only do that by approaching Jesus. As a result we need to stay focused on  Jesus. Jesus is the doorway between us and God (no-one can go to the Father but through Jesus). It is God that can offer us the gift of life.

We need to walk towards him in faith and not be distracted by what is happening around us or put our faith in the things we can see around us.

If we don’t focus on the walk towards Jesus or stop moving closer, we will start to sink like Peter. The distractions around us will consume us like the waves consumed Peter. When that happens it is very difficult to see where we are going and get our focus back.

That is the wonderful thing about faith. If we ask and believe it shall be given to us.

In verses 30-31, Peter, when in doubt (low on faith), called out to Jesus. Jesus came to him and pulled him out of the storm and distraction. In the same way if we call out we can be strengthened and helped as well. Remember what we are taught in Matthew 7:7-8. If we have the faith to ask and believe that the Lord will deliver - He will.

With this in mind, we can have a choice: we can have faith in the things around us where distractions can overwhelm us causing us to lose sight of what is important, or we can have faith in God through his Son and be strengthened by it.