Anchors have been around as long as we have had boats on water. They are a means of securing a boat to keep it from drifting away. On larger vessels capable of ocean voyages they also secure the ship against the storms that come. Oil drilling rigs are often stationed in some of the worst areas in our oceans for storms and they are anchored securely and even the worst of the storms the crew can remain secure in the fact that the anchors have been designed to keep them secure and in place. They won’t drift or blow away.
In our lives anchors are important as well. We live in a world that is going crazier every day. With new bombings happening in Belgium, and Turkey, and terrorist attacks on the rise all around the world our lives are become more and more unstable. People are beginning to question much of what they had counted on for securing. With global instability rising, and markets crashing even the finances we had set aside and based some security in for our future is disappearing. Overnight people are waking up to realities where the moneys they had worked so hard to set aside and plan for had disappeared. Many lost thousands as the market values crashed and world currencies devalued. Security has become an illusion for many people. With home invasions on the rise, and gun violence all around us many have become disillusioned with what we had at one time considered security.
In all of this there is an opportunity to have real hope. An all-encompassing sense of security inside, even when the world is going crazy outside. There is an ability to have a confident peace that is secure and quietly allows you to weather all that life may send your way. It isn’t an absence of things going wrong, but a confidence and hope that fills us regardless of things going wrong.
1 Peter 1:3 talks about this hope that is available to us. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” NIV Jesus is alive. He was dead, and was raised to life again, and because of this we can have a deep-seated hope and confidence that is not dependent on our circumstances. A hope which anchors us securely through all that life sends our way. “This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.” Hebrews 6:19 NLT
As we enter the season where we as Christians reflect on what Jesus did for us, and offers to us because of His death and resurrection we need to refocus our lives at times. We can get distracted and allow ourselves to let go of our anchor and tie ourselves to many other things which will never be able to hold us true and steady. In this season we need to ask ourselves what are we anchored to, and will it hold no matter what comes?
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