Our Hope Must Be Anchored in God

A man throws an anchor down to the bottom of the ocean floor, which is a book.

Heavenly Father designed life to teach us the lessons we need most, but they are not always easy. Sometimes we don’t want to learn them. My grandmother always says that you can keep running from the lesson you need to learn if you want to, but life has a way of making you wish you had learned it when you had the chance. If the present times in which we live have taught us nothing else, they have shown us that life can be very unpredictable, and change is sometimes a volatile reality. Things will often get worse before they get better. This is a hard truth for many of us to accept, but it doesn’t change the fact that life will continue to move at a pace that we can’t control. It has both ups and downs, and it can be unstable, but we don’t have to be. God has an expectation that we will not become unstable just because the circumstances and conditions surrounding us are.

Hebrews 6:18-19 (NLT) tells us, “So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.” Hope is a very strong thing when it has an unshakeable foundation. Hebrews 6:19 assures us that only God can provide this kind of steady and strong foundation, because His promises are true, and it is impossible for Him to lie.

Hebrews 6:16 (NLT) says, “Now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it. And without any question that oath is binding.” Again, as we read in Hebrews 6:18, God has given us both His promise and His oath. He promised to bless and take care of His children, and then made an oath to back it up. Since there’s no one greater, and there’s no one that has a higher authority than God, He backs up and guarantees His own oaths to us. This makes perfect sense, because there’s no one greater than Himself that can guarantee His promises. So, He’s putting His name on the line for us. This is to demonstrate that He’s a faithful God that always does what He says. He’s given us both the promise and the oath, so that we will anchor our hope in Him with confidence.

We sometimes think that the world has what we need or that we can have our needs met by worldly sources. It is a huge mistake to do this, because God is the supplier of our needs. The people that we count on will do their best by us, and help us as much as possible, but it is a known fact that even the best and most qualified people will disappoint us. They will sometimes let us down. Many of them don’t mean to do this, but we’re human and we all make mistakes. Psalm 118:8(NLT) gives us wisdom for managing our expectations. It says, “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in people.” Individuals with moral character will earn our trust, and Heavenly Father isn’t telling us not to invest a certain level of trust in them, but we should never lean on anyone more than we do God. Doing so would mean that our hope is misplaced. Whenever this happens, our souls will be unstable; they will not be anchored in God.

Our God is a God of love. He cares for us, and He will bless and protect us all the days of our lives. He’s waits for opportunities to demonstrate His kindness, but our hope must be firmly anchored in Him. God tells us in Hebrews 11:1 (NLT), “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” As believers, we must have faith in order to please God. We learn this in Hebrews 11:6, which tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith. Faith is confidence in His willingness and ability to bless us, and before we have faith, we must first have hope.

In terms of operating by faith, we will typically have an outcome that we are reasonably sure of. We know more about the details, and we have a clearer picture of God’s promise. But sometimes, we’re not sure. Our knowledge about a scenario and its outcome is very limited. This is where hope steps in. Hope is a joyous expectation in God. We may not know what God is up to in our lives. We may not know how a troublesome situation is going to turn out, but because our hope is anchored in Him, worry and fear never enter our minds. We have a positive outlook and anticipation that isn’t based on conditions or circumstances, but is based on the reality of God’s goodness. Storms will come in life, but no matter how much the storms rage, God will forever be faithful to His promises. This is our anchor.

We must have a joyous expectation that God will fulfill His promises. He tells us in James 1:5-8, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.” We cannot afford for this to be said of us. To have a blessed existence, we must be wholeheartedly anchored in the Lord. Our God is a God of love, He cares for us, protects us, and blesses us. Our faith and hope should be in Him alone. The world can never provide what God can. He created us out of His love, and His Will is that we always lean on Him, the Source and Supplier of every good thing.■

4TheChristianMan

Christian encouragement and inspiration for men

Our Hope Must Be Anchored in God

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