That evening Jesus’ disciples went down to the shore to wait for him. But as darkness fell and Jesus still hadn’t come back, they got into the boat and headed across the lake toward Capernaum. Soon a gale swept down upon them, and the sea grew very rough. They had rowed three or four miles when suddenly they saw Jesus walking on the water toward the boat. They were terrified. But he called out to them, “Don’t be afraid. I am here!” Then they were eager to let him in the boat, and immediately they arrived at their destination. -John 6:16-21 NLT

When “darkness fell” and Jesus was nowhere in sight, the disciples went on their own way without Him. Darkness was surrounding them, but instead of being still and waiting on Jesus, they went their own way. When reading this story, I say to myself “Why did they leave without Him? I would have waited for Jesus.” But in all honesty don’t we all do the exact same thing as the disciples. Instead of waiting on Jesus, we often times press on without Him on our own. Instead of having faith that He will show up and lead us, we see the darkness of our circumstances surrounding us and we abandon our original plan to “wait for him” and jump into action.

For me personally, I think I do it out of fear; fear that I should be doing something instead of just standing still. But taking action out of fear instead of a position of peace, will time and time again prove to be the wrong move. Waiting on Jesus is the much better course of action, no matter how inactive it appears to be.

Pressing on without Him will, of course, bring nothing but rough times. But ultimately, He always shows up telling us not to be afraid, and that He is with us. He joins us where we are, no matter how far we have wandered or “rowed”, and when we are back with Jesus, despite us going off on our own way without Him, we are immediately, once again, where we are supposed to be.

Today, let’s wait on Jesus. Let’s seek Him, and wait for Him to direct our next moves. Let’s not go off on our own in our own power to face the storms, let’s be people who who wait on Jesus.