Peter responded and said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and when he began to sink, he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”

In a court case, legal teams present evidence on behalf of the plaintiff and defendant to make their points, seeking a verdict in their favor. Some evidence, like a testimony or physical proof, stands up in court, prompting the judge or jury to consider that side in a new way. But other evidence, like circumstantial evidence, does not hold up and should not sway the verdict in either direction. We constantly subconsciously sort through evidence and make conclusions.

Even in our faith, we sort through evidence to assess how we will live out the Christian life. We decide what to trust God with and how much to trust Him based on the evidence we have seen in our lives as well as what we have heard about or read. What is tricky about this is that we consider the physical evidence as the most compelling evidence. We trust what we can see, how we feel, or what we have experienced as more compelling than the things we can’t see or quantify like the timeless truth of Scripture, the promises of God, and His presence with us.

When Peter had His eyes on Jesus, he experienced a miraculous moment of complete trust of and walked on water as Jesus’s power worked through him. But as the wind started to blow, other evidence around him became more compelling. Instead of completely trusting in God, He started sinking because believed the evidence around him more than Jesus. So, we don’t take our eyes off Jesus but “look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). External evidence will always be there, but will we allow His presence to be more compelling evidence in those moments of fear than what we can see and understand? It’s not easy but when we trust Him completely, we will see amazing things beyond anything we could hope, see, or dream.

• What situation in your life is taking your eyes off Christ?
• What does it look like to keep your eyes on what is unseen? How is that possible?
• Pray and ask God to help you keep your eyes on Him and what is unseen.