Whisper in the Waves

"Your grace abounds in deepest waters
Your sovereign hand
Will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You've never failed and You won't start now

And I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine"
Hillsong United - Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)


The waves were rising, and the storm grew angry. The wrath of God made physical as the waves crash into each other and rock the boat. His glory and power made manifest in the rolling thunder and splitting lightening. Peter looked out into the black sea and saw Jesus. The sound of the water and the chaos were filling his ears and consuming his thoughts, but he recognized the quiet voice of His Saviour calling his name. "Peter come here! Come to me! Here in the storm, I am right here, you see me right? Do you hear my voice? Come here, walk to me." So the storm as great, as terrifying, as destructive and as loud as it was, was not able to stop Peter from hearing and seeing Jesus. He walked, only by faith, to meet Jesus in the waves.

What an amazing picture. Life can be so loud and distracting. Friendships, relationships, school, work, money. It is all so loud. Some days people's voices are just so consuming. Our own thoughts and struggles can be challenging and it feels like everything around us has this ability to steal our gaze and fill our ears with noise. Our alarms go off each morning and it begins, we race through the day with such habit and repetition, but we crave and long for a depth in our relationships with God. We wake up and miss the days of nearness to Him, we miss peace, we miss innocence, we dream of days to just be still. But we keep on going, we keep on moving. Even on really good days, we listen to the sound of the world's chatter, we listen to the fleeting sound of happiness the world offers and we feel good, we feel like maybe we have joy. We read a few verses, do a quick devotion, listen to some worship music and we press on. We tell ourselves the world is fallen and that our depth with God is prevented by sin and corruption, and we suppress the hunger burning inside us for more of Him.

And then something happens, or nothing happens. We are sadden, or overjoyed, or maybe numb. But either way we wake up and look around us and suddenly we don't see Him, we don't hear His voice calling our names. We don't have confidence and boldness in His calling for our life, we loose sight of His path, we forget exactly what He had said to us. We hear a lot of things and see a lot of movement, but we somehow got distracted by everything else. Looking into the dark storm of our busy lives and trying to see God some days feels impossible. It feels like we are swimming upstream and trying to reach for more of Him and that we will just never get there. Sometimes knowing what He wants for us feels abstract and trusting His word becomes an easy surface level answer. We cry for depth. We are not able to stay up without His strength but we cannot spot Him! We look out into the waves from our fishing boats and we squint and wipe our eyes, we cup our hands around our ears to hear from Him and we hear nothing, we just see waves crashing shore and the storm closing in.

How did Peter see Him coming? How close did Jesus have to come, how loud did He have to yell before Peter turned his head and opened his eyes? It seems like it was easier for Peter, he actually saw Jesus, he walked with him, he knew his voice, he held his hands, ate bread with Him, Peter really knew Jesus. So when Peter looked out and saw the Saviour's outline, when he heard Jesus call him and say "Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid" Peter knew the words had weight. He knew the command was true. He knew not because of what Jesus said, but because the voice he heard was familiar, it was the same voice of Jesus that originally said "Follow me". Peter would not have been reassured if a different man came and said "Do not fear". The only reason the fear was gone was because Peter knew his Saviour's voice, and so in the middle of the waves, he was able to say. "Lord, Save me!". He knew the voice he was hearing, and the figure he was seeing was Jesus which enabled him to place His life into God's hands.

The only way we will be able to hear the Lord's voice, and see Him coming, is if we know Him. When the waters of our lives rise up around us, the noise will increase and the only way we will keep our eyes open and not be overtaken is if we can firmly say "I hear the voice of Jesus saying 'Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid". If the storm comes and the waves are crashing down and we do not know who He is, or what He sounds like, how will we be able to grasp His words and conquer the storm? It will pull us under before we have time to be still and find Him. If our ears try to listen for His voice for the first time in the storm, it will take much longer to hear Him and we may drown. But if we know, on a day to day basis how God speaks, what His voice sounds like in our hearts, and what He looks like each moment, then the storms will come and the waters will rise, the sound will invade but our hearts and minds will be so intently trained and focused on Him that in an instant we will hear Him. No trial, no fear, nothing in our lives will be able to keep His voice from reaching our ears.

Sometimes I get busy, I get all caught up in so many things. Sometimes I am even caught up in good things, like friendships and devotion books, and even studying the Bible. And those things are amazing, and true gifts. But sometimes waves come, and waters rise, and all the sudden I am in need of my Saviour's voice, and I don't hear it. I look up for an answer and realize I forget the look of Him. It is like I have been listening to so many other sounds for so long that I forget, I wander, and my mind cannot find Him in the storm. All the other images I have been focusing on take over my vision and I don't see Him. In prayer I cry out for God to speak, for His comfort to come, for His whisper to guide me, all the while He speaks and the waves are all I hear. Like a child He disciplines me to be still each day and hear Him. To put away my books and notes and pens and music. To close my eyes and be still before Him. It seems this may be the hardest thing to do! But when I get used to hearing Him, when I focus on His sounds, His breathing, I have peace. And no storm, no commotion, no danger, no threat, no sadness, no change will ever be able to block the sound of Him from my heart. If I can memorize and mediate on all of Jesus, His voice, His words, His patterns in my life, His way of moving, all of Him. Then when things go wrong, when life gets messy, when my emotions and the words of others become a loud buzz in my ear, I will be able to simply listen and hear the familiar sounds of Jesus breathing in and out.

When Jesus says something to me like "Walk on water, or give up everything and follow me, or leave those things behind for what I have for you, or sell everything and come to me" I won't be confused, I won't even be shaken by the complete confusion of His calling. I won't say "Why in the world would I walk on water" But instead His voice will register in my heart as the same voice I have been hearing and trusting each day, every moment, and by His Spirit inside of me, I will obey His calling.

So for today He says "Abide in me, learn my ways, hear my voice. Listen to my breathing. Memorize my love. So that, when waters rise, when the storm comes, when suffering confronts you, or when choices need to be made, you will know who I am. You will know what you are waiting to hear. You will know my shadow and you will watch for it coming across the sea. Beloved, come to me now in the quiet, so you will find me tomorrow in the storm."

God will speak to us in the storms, and He will rescue us from the water. He will direct us and lead us into eternal life. He will show us which way to turn and He will give us the strength to obey. He promises those things.

But if we can hear Him today, in every moment, if we can continually rest in His presence, we won't have to swim around in the waves waiting for Him to come, we won't have to squint into the dark and yell and scream saying come rescue me! We will instead look confidently at the storm and say "Waters: I am not afraid, He is with me. Rivers: you will not overwhelm me. Fire: I will walk through you and not be burned. And flames you will never consume me. For I know off by heart the sound of my Savior and I am intently focused on hearing Him and seeing Him. I know Him and love Him therefore when He comes I will know! When He whispers, I will hear. When He comforts I will feel. And when He moves I will follow."

Jesus has gone before us and made a way for us to see God. He has overcome all barriers and all distractions that keep us from the Father. The Spirit inside us gives us authority over the chaos of this world. We have been given freedom and we can trust in God when the world rises up against us for He has overcome the world! We do not have to drown when the waters rise. We have a God who will establish us and keep us in the love of Christ. If we will abide there, and listen to Him, we will hear His voice everywhere. If we will stay connected to Him day by day, we will be able to look at the storm and hear its wrath and might and even then we will hear His whisper in our hearts. No matter what the whisper says, we will obey, because it will be so smooth, and gentle, and familiar. We will remember the past and how that small whisper has never failed us, and we will confidently obey. And then after a little while when the waters rise again, when we feel ourselves sinking down, when we can no longer tread to keep our heads above the water, we will stop and hear the voice of Jesus, the whisper in the waves, and we will know that it is Him.

Martina Sobey