If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat by John Ortberg
Week 8: Chapter 7 — Learning to Wait on the Water
Read Chapter 7 of If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat. Primary Scripture: Isaiah 40:28–31; Psalm 27:13–14.
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Getting out of the boat is not always followed immediately by walking — sometimes water-walking faith involves a season of waiting, and Ortberg explores what faithful, active waiting actually looks like.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Ortberg distinguishes between passive waiting (doing nothing) and active waiting (continuing to prepare, pray, and obey while trusting God's timing). What does active waiting look like in a practical situation you are currently facing?
2.The chapter explores the frustration and temptation of waiting — the pull to take control, manufacture outcomes, or give up altogether. Which of these temptations is most characteristic of you, and what has it cost you in the past?
3.Isaiah 40 promises that those who wait on the Lord will 'soar on wings like eagles.' Ortberg unpacks the Hebrew word for 'wait' (qavah) as having the sense of binding or twisting together — like strands of a rope becoming stronger under tension. What does it mean to be 'bound to' God in a season of waiting?
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