How many of us know God has called us? How many of us can reflect back to the day of our salvation or perhaps the day he filled you with the Holy Spirit or some great miracle He has done for you? I venture to say every believer can do this. But a strange thing seems to inevitably happen to us as we travel down life's road with Jesus....we get distracted. Like Peter in the above passage, it can sometimes be "stormy" conditions that captures our attention. Relational problems, financial struggles, church strife, physical illness, the spiritual fall of a fellow believer(s), hypocrisy, the moral decay of society, corruption in government,corruption in church...the list is endless. The one thing we have no shortage of today is distractions. We start out well, but take our eyes off the Savior. As a result, we begin to sink into a sea of discouragement and indifference. The more we sink the greater the sea appears to us until, if we aren't careful, we become another drowning statistic. Overwhelmed with a feeling of hopelessness in such a vast expanse of sorrow.  Another victim of a godless world system that couldn't care less about faith or hope or the saving power of Christ. Yes, this world is a fathomless depth of strife, turmoil, temptations and disappointments. It seems that the harder we struggle, the deeper we sink. 
The bottom line is this. You can find discouragement in anything you look for it in. What you fix your eyes upon is what you will receive.

Jesus Christ did not shed his blood for you to be discouraged, hindered or defeated. These are the days when a great falling away will, and is occurring. Disillusioned christians are staying home and not attending church because church is not what they think it should be. They come in half-drowned by the sea of the world and seem to find none to pull them from their watery prison. They drift back home unhelped and unchanged. Why? Because we've lost our vision. We've lost sight of our only hope. Our only way out of this watery grave is Jesus. Like Peter, we must cry out to Him and fix our eyes back on Him. Fasten your eyes on the eyes of Jesus! Look full in His marvelous face. And the things of this world, will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace. A preacher can't save you. A song can't save you. A fellow brother or sister can't save you. So..., why in the world would you look to one of them to do so? Focus on Jesus!  Let me encourage you church, things seem bleak because the time is short. This world is definitely going under. But, remember, you are not of this world. You've been bought with a price. This world is not our home.

Keep your eyes on Jesus church. Be faithful, be sober, be vigilant and be patient.