“But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, ‘Lord, save me.’ Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, ‘ O you of little faith, why did you doubt?'”    
– Matt. 14:30-31

The water–the thing that posed the greatest threat to Peter’s life–was already under his feet. So, why did he let the wind get the better of him? I’ve always taken Jesus’ comment: “O you of little faith…” to be a criticism of Peter’s small and/or insufficient faith. But I’m not sure that’s the best reading of Jesus’ words here. Rather than criticizing the size of his faith, Jesus is offering a very generous compliment, especially given what He says in 17:20 about how our mustardseed-sized faith moves mountains, etc. I think Jesus was saying to Peter as he lifted him up out of the water: “Hey, your little faith was working just fine; were you not just walking on water? What happened? Why did you doubt your faith?” Jesus doesn’t criticize Peter for taking his eyes off of Him and arrogantly beginning to trust in himself, but for doubting the power of Christ to keep him atop the water even through his little faith.

Often in life we sink into fear not because we doubt Jesus directly–we know He’s still right there, the same way Peter did; Jesus never vanished–but because we doubt the faith that He’s specifically given us to be placed in Him: “Surely I’m not going to be able to walk on this water for long…Surely this faith isn’t strong enough to withstand this battering from the wind…Surely I’m going to misuse this faith…Surely my small faith can’t be trusted…Surely my faith isn’t as good as so-in-so’s…”

Too many Christians spend too much time trying to find or grow a bigger faith, when instead we should allow our small faith to show us a really BIG God! Imagine looking at a sunset through a one-inch peep hole. When your eye is three feet away from the hole, the sunset isn’t going to be very impressive, but the closer you get to the hole the bigger the sunset becomes as more of its light strikes your retina. Jesus allows His followers to see Him through the lens of faith and the closer we draw to Him through faith, the more expansive and awesome He becomes to us. But Satan gets in the mix and causes us to think more about the size of our faith rather than the majesty of the Christ we see through it. He tells us to look at the faith of others and be jealous, meanwhile our eyes are diverted from Jesus. Who cares what size someone else’s faith is? To have been given faith of any size is a most undeserved thing, and cause for rejoicing!

Jesus is the object of our faith; it’s Him that we ultimately look to and trust, but believing in Him requires that we believe also in the very belief through which He has graciously allowed us to see Him. Doubting or despising the faith Jesus has given us is deadly. Coveting the faith of another Christian is just dumb! Instantly ‘Big’ faith was never Jesus’ goal for His disciples; but small and constantly growing faith (such as the mustard seed which grows into the largest of garden plants) in a big and beautiful God blesses our Master’s heart. Little faith is His gift to us; it keeps us humble; it keeps us trusting. Exercising our faith daily does more than keep us outside the boat and merely treading water; it keeps us atop the water looking at our Savior and enjoying His beauty.