{"id":9935,"date":"2021-10-16T06:37:17","date_gmt":"2021-10-16T11:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-matthew-14\/"},"modified":"2021-10-02T13:11:34","modified_gmt":"2021-10-02T18:11:34","slug":"devotional-on-matthew-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-matthew-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Matthew"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15666\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15666\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029317.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029317-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15666\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029317-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029317-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029317-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029317-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029317.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15666\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Arches National Park, Utah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A wonderful faith experiment<\/p>\n<p>Matthew 14: When he looked down at the waves churning beneath his feet, he lost his nerve.<\/p>\n<p>This is such a neat story!  Out on the sea in rough, windy conditions Jesus comes to the disciples, walking on the water.  Peter asks for permission to join Jesus out on the waves and Jesus tells him to \u201ccome.\u201d  Peter does it!  He climbs out of the boat and steps out onto the water.  Can\u2019t you imagine Jesus and Peter laughing together as they do the impossible!  However, this is no glassy pond on a summer afternoon.  Instead, they\u2019re in the dark in a wind storm and the waves are high.  For Jesus and Peter it must be quite a ride, bobbing up and down, being sprayed by the driven waves.  It\u2019s at that point that euphoria drains from Peter.  The water\u2019s very real and in no way capable of supporting him.  As he begins to sink he looks up to Jesus who remains confidently on top of the water.  \u201cSave me!\u201d Peter cries.  Without a second\u2019s hesitation, Jesus reaches out and pulls him back on top, now carrying the weight of both of them.  Jesus calls Peter \u201cfaint heart\u201d but I think he\u2019s quietly pleased that Peter joined him in this wonderful experiment of faith.  I know this is a unique situation: a moment in history.  Still, I can\u2019t help but be impressed by the power of faith in very real, impossible situations.  I\u2019m also glad to note that Peter didn\u2019t have to cry out but one time.  Jesus may have called Peter a \u201cfaint heart\u201d but he saved him first.<\/p>\n<p>Take Away: God responds to our faith in wonderful, sometimes unexpected ways.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A wonderful faith experiment Matthew 14: When he looked down at the waves churning beneath his feet, he lost his nerve. This is such a neat story! Out on the sea in rough, windy conditions Jesus comes to the disciples, walking on the water. Peter asks for permission to join Jesus out on the waves [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1518,1428],"tags":[1188,340,722,845,1108],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9935"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9935"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15667,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9935\/revisions\/15667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}