Our Soul’s Anchor
by Abiding Love
Hebrews 6 — Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.
What is hope? Hope is a faith that looks forward in time. It is being sure of what will transpire.
Hope is powerful. Hope gives courage to people to fight for causes. Hope gives courage to immigrants to venture to new lands. Hope leads sick people to lay down on surgical tables, marriages to keep trying to work things out, students to work hard in school, teams to give an extra hour at practice…
Sometimes hope is poorly founded. A crowd at the beginning of a game may be cheering like crazy because they believe their team will win, only to find out that their team loses. Or we may hope a loved one will recover from that stroke or cancer, only to later learn that they would not recover. Not every earthly hope turns out as we desired.
We can begin to think that hope is more of a wish then being certain of something. We can even begin to lose hope in things for no reason at all. Remember the disciples on the road to Emmaus. They explained that they were so discouraged and downcast because Jesus had died and “we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.”
God has given us His promises in Scripture so that we have something certain to know about our future — a hope. Jesus’ death and resurrection are the basis of these promises. Promises of God never leaving or forsaking us, of a home in heaven being prepared for us, of a God who will work out all things for our eternal good, and so many more promises spread throughout the words of Scripture.
God’s promises are certain. He never lies. He never falls short of being able to come through on what he says. He never changes on us. God won’t fail.
So he bids us to take hold of his promises as our hope. He bids us to anchor our soul upon his promises.
We need that. Because life is so uncertain. This world all passes away. It is full of uncertainties that can leave us disappointed and discouraged. But God never fails. So we can have confidence and hope regarding our life. We know that our Redeemer lives so that we know we will one day see him with our own eyes. We know that Jesus rose, so we know that we too will rise. We know that Jesus ascended to heaven so we know that we too will join the great assembly before his throne.
A lady just said to me this morning, “I don’t always know where I am at, but I know where I came from and I know where I am going.” Amen! We don’t always understand our earthly circumstances, especially when earthly hopes are dashed. But we know where we are going — to heaven! And we know where we came from — Jesus rescued us out of sin and death!
So have this hope as anchor for your soul. And live courageously.
Peace in Jesus,
Pastor John Gensmer
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