Page 19 - Of Course You Can Walk On Water - eBook

observe their reaction. And that made him take his eyes off Jesus. The result was
inevitable.

"Because of their self-sufficiency, ... [many] fall an easy prey to Satan's devices .... Those
who trust in self are easily defeated." -Review and Herald, Dee. 16, 1902.

"Let ... [the believer] cast away all [self-] confidence. God has no place for it in His
work." -Ibid., July 7, 1910.

"One word which exalts self causes the light of God's countenance to be withdrawn."
-Ibid., Aug. 24, 1897.

We talk about doubt coming because we take our eyes off Jesus. This is true. But the
reason that we look away from Jesus is that we have looked toward self.

The spiritual eye can look in only one of two directions, and see only one of two objects.
It either looks outward at Christ, or inward at self. It cannot look in both directions at

once.

We may not realize we are no longer looking at our Master. We find ourselves floundering
in the waves of sin and defeat, and do not understand why. We may even think we are still
looking toward Christ, so subtly has our attention been drawn from Him.

When Peter turned his eyes away from Jesus the way was opened for a second
temptation-a temptation to doubt. We cannot know the thought that flashed through
Peter's mind then. Did it come as a stab of fear such as that which hits the novice
swimmer, out of his depth, who is suddenly gripped with the panicky thought that he can't
make it?

Satan is constantly working to undermine our faith with doubts, which is, of course, to
doubt God. His approach may be to suggest that we are presumptuous, mistaken, misled,
deluded.

There may be a beneficial result, even from these temptations. They should motivate us to

reexamine our beliefs, our commitment, our lives, on the basis of the Bible and the Spirit
of Prophecy. The result, then, should be a strengthening and reaffirming of our faith,
rather than a weakening of it.

But with Peter, doubt flooded into his mind, sweeping away faith.

Apparently there was some distance between Jesus and Peter when the disciple began to

19