The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
The Anchor of Our Souls
As we move into 2020, it’s hard not to bemoan how fast the opportunities of 2019 have slipped past us. At the same time, our culture demonstrates an ever-increasing deterioration, leaving many hopeless and without anything solid to hold onto. Hebrews 6:17-20 gives me comfort because it reminds me of the firm foundation on which my life stands anchored in Christ:
“…God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath that, by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. [This] hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus…”.
As Christians, the hope described in these verses anchors our souls in the following ways:
We are anchored in Jesus Christ – Romans 8:38-39
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We are anchored in the Holy Spirit – Hebrews 10:14-17
“…by one offering he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. The Holy Spirit also is a witness to us, for after He had said …‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days’, [He then said] ‘I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them, and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more.’”
We are anchored in God the Father – Acts 17:24-29
“God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands, neither is He worshiped with men’s hands as though He needed anything, seeing He gives to all life, and breath, and all things. [He] has made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might … find Him, though He be not far from every one of us. For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.”
We are anchored in the Word of God – Romans 10:17
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”
We are anchored in the Promise of God – 2 Peter 3:9
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
We are anchored in Heavenly Places – Ephesians 2:4-6
“But God, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved), has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
“We Have An Anchor” (Great Hymns of the Faith, p. 265), a hymn we frequently sang in church while I was growing up, reaffirms the assurance that the anchor and solid rock to which we are attached through hope and faith in God will not move:
Will your anchor hold in the storms of life, When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?
When the strong tides lift and the cables strain, Will your anchor drift, or firm remain?
Chorus:
We have an anchor that keeps the soul Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the Rock which cannot move, Grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love!
It is safely moored, ‘twill the storm withstand, For ‘tis well secured by the Saviour’s hand;
Tho the tempest rage and the wild winds blow, Not an angry wave shall our bark o’erflow.
When our eyes behold through the gathering night The city of gold our harbour bright,
We shall anchor fast by the heavenly shore, With the storms all past for evermore.
With Paul we can confidently say, “…I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day” (2 Tim 1:12b).
