Finding Peace When Control Slips Away

Amber Camp
January 21, 2026

Not Afraid of Deep Water: Finding Peace When Control Slips Away

When the waters are rising, do we fear drowning, or do we have faith in the Rescuer?

It’s an uncomfortable question.

Because most of us don’t think we’re choosing fear. We think we’re choosing realism. Survival. Awareness.

But fear has a way of disguising itself as wisdom when life feels unstable.

Rising waters don’t usually announce themselves. They creep. One disappointment. One betrayal. One unanswered prayer. One more thing added to an already heavy load. Before you know it, you’re standing in water that used to be ankle deep and now sits at your chest.

And that’s when the panic sets in.

Not because God is absent, but because control is.

We start asking questions like:

What if this gets worse?

What if I can’t hold my head above water much longer?

What if God doesn’t show up the way I need Him to?

Fear doesn’t always scream. Sometimes it whispers logical, measured concerns that feel responsible. But underneath it is the same ancient lie: You’re on your own now.

Scripture tells us that faith isn’t the absence of danger—it’s the presence of trust within it. The waters were real. The storm was real. The exhaustion was real. But so IS the Rescuer.

And here’s the hard truth:

Fear focuses on the depth of the water.

Faith fixes its eyes on who walks on it.

When the waters rise, fear asks, “How deep is this?”

Faith asks, “Who is with me in it?”

We often want God to lower the water before we trust Him. But faith says, “Even if the water rises, I know who reaches for me.”

There’s a reason rescues rarely happen from dry ground.

They happen in the middle—where strength runs out, where self-reliance fails, where surrender finally becomes the only option left.

And surrender isn’t giving up. It’s letting go of the lie that you were ever meant to save yourself.

If the waters are rising in your life right now, let this be the moment you shift your gaze. Not to minimize the storm, but to remember the Rescuer has never once lost someone who reached for Him.

You don’t need stronger arms.

Because the same God who calms seas also steps into them, and He has never been afraid of deep water.