It’s time to get your feet wet

The story

A few years ago, I went on an adventure trip throughout New Zealand with a friend. In one of our stops by a river, I noticed that the water was really shallow, so I jumped from one small rock to another until I got to a bigger rock where I could stand on both feet. I stood there for a while admiring my surroundings and taking photos. When the time came to move on, all the smaller rocks had almost disappeared because of the rising tide and the only way to go back would be to get my feet wet.
I really didn’t want to get my shoes wet, so for a brief moment that rock felt like a safe place to stay; ” perhaps the water will go down soon enough” I thought for a moment, but it was pretty clear that soon everything would be underwater. So I did what I had to do, running quickly through the now-submerged rocks I made my way back to shore.

A false sense of security

This little memory makes me think about how many times in life we get stuck on a false sense of security just because we are not willing to ”get our feet wet”, whether bothered by an inconvenience or afraid because of the uncertainties of how things are gonna go if I step out of this place I’m at.

What could that be in your life? a Job? a relationship? maybe control or comfort? an addiction…status?
Could it be that the very thing you’re holding on to, is the thing that sooner or later will not be able to sustain you any longer?

Getting your feet wet

When we look at scripture, we can find countless accounts where people had to overcome the fear of the unknown and trust God instead, or to leave the comfort and peace of the familiar in order to follow the voice of the Lord; just like Moses being called back into Egypt after years of living a safe and ordinary life; or Abraham being called to leave the safety and comfort of his home and land in pursuit of a place yet unknown.

In many of these stories, the absence of fear didn’t play a part, people had to rise above it and believe the Lord regardless of what it looked like, they had to make a decision to no longer allow circumstances to dictate their lives but to trust the word of the Lord to overcome any circumstance.


”The word overcome doesn’t mean to go around but to go right through it, to reign over it, to ”grab it by the throat”.


Two bible stories that would relate to this, would be Peter walking on water and Joshua crossing the Jordan River.

Joshua (Joshua chapter 3)
When Moses liberated God’s people from Egypt and crossed the red sea, the waters first split and then they walked on the dry ground, however, when the time came for Joshua to cross the Jordan river, the ones leading the way had to first get their feet into the water and only then the waters parted.
Some breakthroughs will never come unless you’re willing to go for it and walk the road yet unpaved.

Peter (Matthew chapter 14)
We all know the popular story when the disciples were in a boat in the middle of a raging sea and Jesus shows up walking on water (typical Jesus kinda thing). The disciples were very scared, circumstantially they were in the middle of the ocean, the only safe place they had was that boat and things weren’t looking very good weather-wise, and then, Jesus appears WALKING ON WATER and they freaked out thinking He was a ghost (as you would);
I’d say it was a pretty unfamiliar sight to see someone walking on water, would you agree?

Fear of the unfamiliar can be one of our biggest enemies to the point that even when Jesus himself decides to show up, we hesitate, we back off and we hold on to that false sense of security once more; in their case, a boat… a little rocking boat…

We all know how the story goes, Jesus identifies himself and Peter puts it to test by putting himself out there and saying:‘Lord if that’s you command me to come to you on the water”, Jesus answer was quite simple: ”Come”.
So Peter went out of the boat and walked on water with Jesus, however, when his eyes got focused on his surroundings he started sinking, so he cried out to Jesus saying ‘‘ Lord, save me!”

When looking at this passage, people often focus on two things: Peter’s little faith and the fact that He took his eyes off Jesus; those are amazing points to look at but I actually would like to point out two other things:

1 – He stepped out of the boat
Peter had the courage to get his feet wet and to expose himself into a situation, to be ALL IN! Was he scared? I believe so, but He did it anyway!
Peter knew that in order to walk on water the first thing would be to get out of the boat.

2- When sinking, he didn’t try and go back into the boat.
It speaks loads about Peter’s trust when faced with failure, he did not try to get back into the old familiar sense of safety, he did not try to get back into the boat, instead, He cried out to the Lord, the only one who could actually give him true refuge.

Final thoughts

Perhaps you find yourself safe and protected in the comfort of what you’ve built for yourself, and the Lord is telling you that it’s time to go further, that those who sit on boats will never walk on water, perhaps fear has paralysed you but just like Peter, if you’re scared, do it scared anyway because there’s always breakthrough at the other side of fear! Perfect Love casts out fear, Peter was perfectly loved by Jesus and even in his failure, perfect love would have never let go of Him; You are perfectly loved by God, do not be afraid to follow his instructions and take a step towards Him.

These are unprecedented times for everyone, but while many will hold on the safety of the boat, I invite you to be the one who will dare to step out of the boat and see the impossible made possible!

Whatever it is in your life that God is calling you to surrender, I’d like to encourage you to do so, you are not alone in this and you will never be!

It’s time to get your feet wet!

Let’s do this!


As a YWAM centre, we are preparing to move into another building very soon, the place is huge and we don’t have the right number of staff to run the property, neither do we have the finances to keep it, but what we do have is the word of the Lord, and He has our yes!
We have stepped out of the boat and we trust our God, for His ways and thoughts are higher than ours! If you would like to know more about this new season and how you can get involved just click the photo below
, blessings!