GUEST POST FROM HEATHER SEIDNITZER

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But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”“Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.” Matthew 14:27-29 NIV

There is a saying I say a lot to people who are trying to decide to do something out of their comfort zones, for Jesus. It’s “jump out the boat”. You see Jesus wasn’t the only one to walk on water, Peter did too.  Reread the verse above. 

Jesus calls Peter out of the boat ONTO the  water and he walks on water!!!!

About 8 years ago I attended a small group. I use the word attended loosely. I was late every time and sometimes I didn’t come at all. It was hard for me to share, my life was a broken mess. From a broken marriage to losing the divorce custody battle for my kids, it was such a dark time for me. Sometimes all I could do was crawl into group, when I was there all I could do was be present. We did a full dinner every week, I would sign up for the cheese. If I didn’t bring the cheese the whole meal didn’t fall apart, it meant if I didn’t show up no one would notice.

One day we were talking about Peter jumping out of the boat, and would we do that?  I was like “Hell yeah I would!” I mean if Jesus called you..HELLO! Fast forward a few weeks, it was time for our group to form into 2 different groups, adding people to each group. We called it “multiplying” because if you stay together too long you stop growing. They needed 2 new leaders for the groups. Someone stepped up to do one group, but out of the 20 of us NO ONE was stepping up to lead the other. I was pretty much looking at my phone, waiting for whoever so I would know whose group I was in. AND it was taking FOREVER. None of these perfect group leader people were stepping up to do it.  I was thinking about what I needed to do the next day, writing my grocery list in my head… basically waiting patiently. UNTIL, God softly whispered: “I thought you were going to jump out of the boat.” WHAT THE HELL??? I’m the WORST attendee!!! I’m the worst sharer! I’m late or don’t show at all. And every time I said something, God repeated, “I thought you were going to jump out of the boat.” OH.MY.LORD. You seriously can not be calling me! But oh He was. So full of frustration and fear and worry, I jumped out of the boat. I stepped up to lead the second group.

That began 6 years of group leadership. Wow. It still catches my breath to think about that moment. I was not ready, nor was I equipped. But God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called.  May I encourage you to hear the voice of God and obey? To hear Him call you out of the boat, JUMP! You will never regret it… I didn’t!

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