Quick Facts
- Bolded first mention: Peter (the Apostle) — biblical disciple used by Jennie Allen as a case study rather than a narrative protagonist
- Role: Embodies the book’s central contrast between a mind fixed on Christ and a mind overwhelmed by fear
- First appearance in the book: Chapter 16 (final chapter)
- Key relationship: Jesus (teacher, rescuer, and corrector)
- Physical description: None given; Peter is treated as a historical-biblical figure, not a fictional character
Who He Is
Peter is the disciple who dares to step out of the boat—an ordinary man whose flashes of radical trust collide with very human fear. In Allen’s hands, he becomes a mirror for modern readers: bold enough to try the impossible, fragile enough to sink, and humble enough to cry for help. He is not exemplary because he never fails; he is exemplary because his failures reveal where true focus and power lie.
Personality & Traits
Allen paints Peter as courageous yet combustible, his zeal edged with impulsivity. His strengths and weaknesses are not opposites but entwined: the very intensity that launches him onto the waves also makes him susceptible to panic when the storm comes into view.
- Passionate and radical: He’s “a radical, a renegade,” the one who actually climbs over the side of the boat (Chapter 16).
- Impulsive risk-taker: He doesn’t wait for a guarantee; he asks to be commanded and moves before the outcome is clear (Chapter 16).
- Prone to mistakes: Allen notes he’s “perhaps best known for the unbelievable mistakes he made,” including his denial of Jesus (Chapter 16).
- Overconfident: He pledges unwavering loyalty—and then fails spectacularly, revealing the gap between self-confidence and steadfast focus (Chapter 16).
- Fearful and distractible: The shift from Jesus’s face to “the wind” triggers fear and sinking, dramatizing how attention shapes experience (Chapter 16).
Character Journey
Peter’s arc in Chapter 16 is a compressed spiritual biography. He begins with audacious faith—“Lord, if it is you, command me”—and, at Jesus’s word, does the impossible. For several steps, his focus and his footing hold together. Then, as the storm commands his attention, fear fractures that single-minded gaze; sinking exposes the fragility of self-reliance. Yet his cry—“Lord, save me”—becomes the hinge of grace: immediate rescue, tender correction, and a reset of focus. In Allen’s framing, this scene distills the moment-by-moment battle described in Spiritual Warfare for the Mind: where we set our minds determines whether we travel on top of, or collapse under, the waves.
Key Relationships
- Jesus: Their dynamic is teacher–disciple, but also rescuer–rescued. Peter trusts enough to step out at Jesus’s command, fails when fear takes over, and is immediately saved by the outstretched hand. Jesus’s gentle rebuke—naming Peter’s “little faith” and probing his doubt—functions as both correction and invitation to a steadier, truer focus.
Defining Moments
Peter’s water-walk is the book’s emblematic scene—a lived parable of attention, faith, and fear.
- He asks to be commanded: Not presumption but dependence—Peter wants Jesus’s word to ground his risk.
- He walks on water: As long as his gaze holds, reality bends to faith; the miracle is less about Peter’s power than his focus.
- He sees the wind and sinks: Distraction dismantles trust; fear floods in where vision of Jesus fades.
- He cries out and is saved: Rescue reveals the heart of the gospel—human frailty met by immediate grace and firm instruction.
Why it matters:
- It translates the abstract battle of thought-life into a concrete scene anyone can picture.
- It exposes overconfidence and anxiety as attention problems, not merely willpower failures.
- It reframes failure as formation: sinking becomes the classroom of faith.
Secondary note:
- Denial of Jesus (Chapter 16): A companion failure to the water scene, showing the same pattern—bold intent, human collapse, and the possibility of restoration—underscoring that growth flows through correction, not perfection.
Symbolism
Peter’s experience functions as a map for the modern believer navigating mental and spiritual turbulence.
- Walking on water: Living beyond natural limits through trust, sustained by a fixed gaze.
- The wind and waves: The anxieties, toxic thoughts, and distractions that batter attention and erode peace.
- Sinking: The logical end of spiraling fear—when inner chaos dictates outer collapse.
- Fixing eyes on Jesus: The practiced, chosen focus that aligns with truth and steadies the soul—the core practice of The Power of Choice.
Essential Quotes
Aside from the apostle Paul and Jesus, Peter might just be my favorite person in the Bible. My love for him runs deep for two simple reasons: first, he was a radical, a renegade, a guy living hair-on-fire for the Lord, and I like to think that I have a little of that Jesus-freak passion running through my veins. Second, Peter is perhaps best known for the unbelievable mistakes he made—a reality to which I can relate. (Chapter 16)
Allen’s affection sharpens the analysis: Peter is lovable not because he is flawless but because he is fearlessly wholehearted and unmistakably human. His extremes—radical devotion and memorable failures—make him a perfect lens for a book about the mind’s war zone.
That picture of Peter with singular focus on the face of Christ, baby-stepping over those cresting whitecaps—I can’t quit thinking about it. That scene is what inspired part 2 of this book, in fact—this idea that regardless of the wind and the rain and the uncertainty and the fear, when our eyes are fixed on Jesus, we travel on top of, not under, those waves. (Chapter 16)
The image of “baby-stepping” highlights that great faith often looks small but steady. The key isn’t stride length; it’s sustained focus—attention determines altitude.
But it wasn’t Peter’s strength or willpower that kept him afloat; it was the object of his gaze: Jesus’s face. (Chapter 16)
This line relocates power from the self to its focus. The miracle tracks with what Peter looks at: when the gaze holds, grace carries; when the gaze slips, fear floods.
And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” (Chapter 16)
The passage compresses the entire arc—request, command, obedience, miracle, distraction, fear, collapse, and rescue—into a few sentences. It’s a narrative x-ray of the mind in motion, showing how attention shifts under pressure and how grace interrupts the fall.