“This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.” (Hebrews 6:19 NLT)
Hope, like love, is an often misunderstood and underused privilege that is given those of us who know and love Jesus. Hoping for a good score on an exam or that I get that promotion I believe I deserve, or even hoping that God gives us a sunny, warm day for our picnic is quite different than the hope about which the writer of the Hebrew letter writes.
The “strong and trustworthy anchor” of Jesus is a lifesaving, life-preserving, life-giving confidence regardless of the severity of the storm in which we’re seeking to navigate. Having just lost my sister, my heart is heavy, not for her gain, but for my loss and the loss her two adult children are feeling, as well as the many others who loved her and cherished her friendship.
But death is only one of many life events with which we must wrestle as children of the living God. Every day we are bombarded by issues that challenge us on many levels. Everything from a cold to a cancer; disappointment to despair; conflict to condemnation; closeness to cowardice. Serving Jesus is not for the faint of heart.
Losing our focus on Jesus can result in heartache, pain, and anguish from any number of sources. The Lord is teaching me that in absolutely everything I must depend on Him. The second I try to accomplish something on my own, in my own strength, counting on my own resource of knowledge or ability, I inevitably mess up.
As I’ve mentioned in other posts, my dad was a machinist by trade. He could design and make things that I couldn’t imagine, let alone create. He had a saying that I’ve never forgotten. He would tell me: “Son, if you’ll take care of your machine (i.e. lawnmower, chainsaw, automobile, etc.) your machine will take care of you.”
That simple principle has been a guide for me in virtually every area of my life. For example, if I nurture and give priority to my walk with the Lord, it enables me to have full confidence in His reliability to lead me through every difficulty I face. My hope in Jesus to forgive, fill, empower, and lead gives me confidence to do anything He tells me to do and go anywhere He invites me to go. Why?
As Dr. David Jeremiah said in a recent Turning Point devotion: “…we have an anchor that keeps us in place regardless of how strongly the winds of trouble blow: hope. This is not ‘I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow’ hope. Rather, it is ‘an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast’ (Hebrews 6:19). It is a better hope than any other, brought through Christ (Hebrews 7:19), offered to all (Hebrews 6:18), based on God’s faithfulness (Hebrews 10:23), and mediated by the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13). As disheartening as life can be at times, hope never disappoints (Romans 5:5). In this ever-changing world, let your hope remain fixed on the never-changing God.”
Hope is only as strong and reliable as the source upon which our hope is based. To put our hope in a person, political party, or even religion, is to suffer disappointment as your hope is shattered on the shifting sands of cultural fickleness.
Jesus alone is the Rock in whom we can place our trust. He alone can secure the anchor of our souls when the storms of life attack and threaten us. He alone is our indispensable Anchor when the storms of life wash us up on the shoreline of eternity. To place our hope in our own goodness, works, merit, or religion is to be in a rowboat during a tidal wave. It isn’t going to end well.
If you have any question about the source of your hope for eternal life in heaven, please watch this brief video with Ron Hutchcraft. Not having certainty that you’re hope is in Jesus alone by faith in His completed work on Calvary is a very precarious position in which to be. Please click this link: https://hutchcraft.com/the-bridge-to-god
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 