Formula to follow

Anyone can do extraordinary things. Absolutely anyone can do extraordinary things. You can do extraordinary things and so can I.

Jesus did many extraordinary things but he's just human - like the rest of us, right. Jesus walked on water, something awesome - the kind of thing that inspires us all the time to have ambitions, to aim high, to look forward to bigger and better things. Something amazing that sparks a craze to be like your idol, to follow in their footsteps, to be like them. Believing in Jesus is more like this than you think, yes I will praise him, give my all to him. However, part of it is praising Him but also to then be like Him, act like Him, following Him. To be like me, is to follow, Jesus.

How do you follow and do something amazing? Jesus walked on water in front of his followers, they watched on in a boat, they wanted to be like him, they wanted to walk on water. What was stopping them? It wasn't that they weren't the Son of God, it wasn't that they were not special enough. One, it was because they were scared. They cried out in fear, they thought Jesus was a ghost! They were scared to leave the boat, just in the way sometimes we are scared to go out of a wing, or out of our comfort zone, to achieve want we really want. We get scared by the size of what we can do, because it's truly huge. Often when it comes to it were scared, we are only human.

Peter (a follower of Jesus), decided to step out of the boat, he walked towards Jesus on the water, he made a start on his target to be like, to act, to follow Jesus on the water. Anyone can make a start, starting is the easiest thing to do, finishing on the other hand is much harder. Everyone has goals to follow someone, but in the majority of life people don't do extroardinary things, people never reach their aims, their goals, their ambitions. Usually we let go of this belief. Peter was walking towards Jesus, but then he began sinking, he began to let go of his goal, of being like Jesus. sinking into the water. He was sinking and then Jesus saved him at once, he said 'Your faith is small. Why do you doubt?

Why did he fail, why do we fail because of doubt - what doubt, in who?

The answer is not because he lost belief in Jesus, his goal; and we don't lose faith in the extroadinary people that inspire us, because we see them do it, they've done it, seeing is believing, is it not? The doubt Jesus refers to is the doubt that Peter has in himself. He lost faith in his own ability to be like Jesus. Ultimately we lose faith in ourselves when we fail to reach our ambitions, we don't think we can do them. Peter lost faith in himself, Jesus did not. He had doubt whether he was up to the task, we have doubts in ourselves when people knock us down, criticise us, and are mean to us. That's how we lose faith in ourselves that we can do something great. We have to keep faith in ourselves, because Jesus has faith in us.  In the Bible, which is just a guide to life he leaves it up to us to spread the word, to run things; that hope in amazing.

Sometimes practically you might think that some people obviously can't achieve certain things because of the way they are, but I beg to differ, and that depends on what you call truly extraordinary. You don't have to be a saint to follow or to achieve an ambition. In the house of the Lord, the followers of Jesus aren't the best of the best. They aren't the smartest, they aren't the cleverest people, they're not the nicest people, they're not the best looking people. His closest followers, his 12 disciples, the ones he entrusted to tell the whole world his message were just regular people. They were mere fisherman for crying out loud, they weren't the best educated. In Jesus' time the smartest people went to a Rabbi to ask to follow him, be like him. Jesus showed the world anyone can do something extraordinary and follow him, anyone can follow a Rabbi, he chooses mere fisherman to be his closest followers. Unlike the Rabbi's before he has faith in anyone that they can follow him, and they too can do extraordinary things . You don't need to be anything, come as you are!

People achieve awesome things when they are not scared, when they believe in themselves and realise Jesus has belief in them.

Over the last week I've truly experienced this, wandering in the desert over the blog. I was sinking, not because I lost my faith in Jesus at all, it was because I lost confidence in myself, I doubted, I took notice of the weary and the ignorant. I know though, that Jesus has faith in me, in my time, at my pace, I will truly walk on water and do extraordinary things. The same is for everyone.

Laurie xx.