Category: Hope

Anchor for the Soul

Merriam-Webster defines the word “anchor” this way:

  1. a device usually of metal attached to a ship or boat by a cable and cast overboard to hold it in a particular place by means of a fluke that digs into the bottom 
  2. a reliable or principal support :  mainstay
  3. something that serves to hold an object firmly

The author of the book of Hebrews recalls the hope we have in Jesus — our hope of forgiveness despite the ugliness of our sins, our hope to have the power and the help of the Holy Spirit to change our way of life, our hope that heaven is real and that Jesus is preparing a place for us there.

And in his letter to the Hebrews, the author calls this hope an “anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”

The words strongly imply that our souls are never steady all by themselves. But you already recognize that, don’t you? Experience alone would tell you that. Worry, anxiety, guilt, shame, anger, frustration, greed, lust, envy, jealousy — these are all winds that blow our soul around and create waves, waves that cause our soul to bob unsteadily and erratically through life.

Nothing within us will keep us steady. We need something outside of ourselves to hold our souls steady. We need something reliable to be our support and mainstay. We need something that can resist the force of the winds and the waves and hold us firmly in place in the grace, mercy and peace of Jesus Christ.

And that “something” is the hope that Jesus gives us. Hope secures us to the bedrock of God’s promises and holds our soul steadily in place.

So the bottom line is this: Don’t set sail in life without an anchor on board. Don’t allow anyone to tell you that you don’t need an anchor for your soul. Take Jesus, and the hope he gives you, with you everyday wherever you go.

Then you will have a soul that is firm and secure.

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19, NIV).

Lord, I thank you for the hope that I have in Jesus Christ, your Son, my Lord and Savior. Help me to carry this hope with me every day in life and use it as an anchor for my soul. I want to live a life and have a soul that is firm and secure.

Our Bible reading for Thursday, November 5, is Ezekiel 7:1 – 9:11, Hebrews 6:13 – 7:10 and Psalm 119:161-168.

Header image based on "Ancora, ancla, anchor." by Miguel Campo, CC By-SA 2.0

3 Things God Plans for You

Have you ever felt “banished”? Or “in captivity”? Or perhaps, “exiled”? The Israelites were far more than feeling this. They were experiencing it.

God’s chosen had been banished to Babylon as discipline for their sins of idolatry, lovelessness and injustice. They were in captivity and the Babylonians told them what they could do and not do. They were exiled and could not go home to the place they loved.

It would have been a major temptation to think, “God no longer loves us. He plans to punish us here forever, and we have no hope of ever escaping this. All we can expect is more pain, more trouble, more defeat, more loneliness.”

In times of trouble and hardship, it becomes really easy to believe that God only wants to bring us hurt and harm. We lose our optimism about the future. We feel like we’re just going to be held down and beaten up. We throw planning out the window. “Why plan?” we think to ourselves. Some disaster is just going to happen and demolish our plans anyway.

That’s why Jeremiah 29 is so important. In this chapter, Jeremiah sends a letter to the exiles in Babylon from Jerusalem. And he reassures them that God’s plans for them are loving plans, plans to help them prosper, plans to give them a wonderful future.

Hope is so necessary, and so powerful. And we all need a message of hope from time to time.

That’s why Jeremiah 29:11 is a great passage to take with you wherever you go in life. It’s a great passage for the dark times. We can use it to remind ourselves that — no matter what current events seem to be telling us — we have a God who gives us hope.

So, never forget. God plans three things for you. You have a God who plans 1) to prosper you, and 2) to give you hope, and 3) to give you a future.

And never lose sight of this, either. God loves to have you seek him out through his word. He promises that when you do that, you will find him — and find your hope again!

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile” (Jeremiah 29:11-14, NIV).

Jesus, thank you for your sacrifice for sins, and for your resurrection. This tells me you always intend to reconcile with me, and that there is always hope and a future. Help me to trust that you always want me to prosper in the end. And especially help me to trust this when I am undergoing tough times in life.

Our Bible reading for Tuesday, October 13, is Jeremiah 27:1 – 29:23, 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12 and Psalm 119:25-32.

Header image based on "hope" by pol sifter, CC By 2.0

A Single Beam of Hope

Sometimes it’s all just too much. One thing stacks on another. You feel like you can’t take one more thing. But here it comes anyway.

All of a sudden, your senses seem to halt. You can’t hear. And you can’t speak either.

The stress has gotten to the point where you’re just completely overwhelmed. Even if it’s just momentary, it feels like the whole world is arrayed against you.

And in your heart? Perhaps it’s anger. Maybe it’s grief. Or worry. And it could just be a deep, deep hurt. Whatever it is, it feels crushing.

And yet, somewhere deep down inside, underneath layers and layers of all that dark, heavy emotion, there still lies just a tiny glimmer. A single itsy, bitsy beam of light — for your soul.

That little beam? It’s hope. The world may be caving in on top of you, but somehow all is not yet lost.

Because God is real. He does know you. And you matter to him.

After all, he gave you his one and only Son’s life to rescue you from sin and eternal death — from darkness that lasts forever.

King David knew that darkness. He also knew that beam of hope… and he knew that God hears and answers prayer.

“I am like the deaf, who cannot hear, like the mute, who cannot speak; I have become like one who does not hear, whose mouth can offer no reply. Lord, I wait for you; you will answer, Lord my God” (Psalm 38:13-15, NIV).

Lord, you are real. You know me, and I matter to you because in Christ, I’m your child. I am burdened and weighed down. Please hear my prayers and answer them.

Our Bible reading for Monday, March 30, is Numbers 27:12 – 29:11, Luke 8:1-18 and Psalm 38:13-22.

Header image based on "hope" by Forest Wander, CC By-SA 2.0

Righteous, Devout and Waiting

Simeon is described by three words: righteous, devout, and waiting. And then a very important phrase follows: “…and the Holy Spirit was on him.”

This is what the Holy Spirit does. He makes us righteous by faith. He turns our heart away from sin and makes us devoted to Jesus. He causes us to wait for the Lord in faith.

In Simeon’s case, the Holy Spirit did something a little extra. He also revealed to Simeon that he would not die before seeing the birth of the Messiah.

One day, he was moved by the Spirit to go to the temple in Jerusalem. When Mary and Joseph walked in with the baby Jesus, Simeon knew this was exactly why the Spirit had motivated him to go into God’s house:

“Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: ‘Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel'” (Luke 2:28-32, NIV).

What was it that this righteous man had been waiting devotedly for? What was he hoping to see?

He was hoping to see Jesus, the one who would bring comfort and peace to God’s people. He was waiting for the one who would prepare salvation for all nations.

If Simeon, a mere man, could be waiting so devotedly and so expectantly, imagine how passionately a righteous and devoted Savior waited to arrive so he could begin to carry out the plan of salvation!

Consider how passionately a righteous and devoted Savior waits — even now — for you to listen to his Spirit’s call, the way Simeon did, and come into his house.

Our Bible reading for Wednesday, March 18, is Numbers 7:1-65, Luke 2:21-40 and Psalm 35:1-10.

Header image based on "Waiting for the Word" by Hacker, CC By 2.0