Anchor Your Hope in God

By Alexandra Copeland

Most of us are not asking a whole lot out of life. We’d like to have more good days than bad, and we want our family and loved ones blessed as well. If only life were that simple. The present condition of the world has taught us the unpredictability of circumstances, the sometimes volatile nature of change, and that others do not always play fair. It doesn’t take us long to realize that life is an ever-moving vehicle that never stops or slows to our preference or schedule. It is filled with both ups and downs, and it can be incredibly unstable, but God wants us to understand that this doesn’t mean that we are to be unstable with it. Hebrews 6:19 assures us of God’s expectation by telling us that our hope in Him through the Lord Jesus Christ is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.

This verse in Hebrews 6:19 gives us a simple but power-packed truth that will steer us through any troubled waters. It tells us first that hope is strong. Many people do not believe this. Maybe something happened in their lives in the past, and they were so hurt by it that they decided it is safer to just be sad and pessimistic than to hope. A person can feel like the devil’s punching bag, like they take one step forward and two steps backward. If we train our minds to think this way, inevitably a pattern of fear will establish itself. The anchor of hopefulness will not be our spiritual tool of choice, because we will have taught ourselves to choose doubt instead. This is a very subtle trick that the devil uses to get people to become more comfortable with fear than faith.

Psalm 118:8(NLT) tells us, "It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in people." God isn't telling us that we should never trust people. We can trust those who demonstrate moral character, but we must also accept the reality that sometimes people will let us down. They will disappoint us. This doesn't mean that we should continually hold a grudge in our hearts, or refuse to love with boldness. It means that we must make sure that our hope is in the right place--that we are looking to God to be our refuge, and not another human being.

Hope is strong because it is meant to be invested in the Lord Jesus Christ. When it is, Hebrews 6:19 tells us that it is a trustworthy anchor for our souls. This leads us to another important piece of wisdom from this verse, and it is that our souls need to be anchored. An anchor is a very heavy object used to keep something, usually a ship, in place, so that it is not moved from its position when harsh winds and waves prevail. Heavenly Father desires that we are as steady and sure as a ship that has been anchored. We can see this in Ephesians 4:14, where He tells us not to be immature like children, or tossed and blown with the wind of new and foolish teaching. In James 1:8, He reminds us that a person that is indecisive is like a ship without an anchor, because they are unstable in all their ways.

God's desire is that we have hope, because hope is strong and will anchor us, no matter how tumultuous the storm. And we know that storms will come. We have faced challenges to our faith in the past, and God has proved Himself faithful. He will always be faithful to His promises. When we’re going through trouble in our relationships, the Lord is there with us. Sometimes there are lessons about surrender—letting go and letting God—that we need to learn. Maybe we are holding too tightly to the person, and leaning on them instead of leaning on God. This will always get us into problems because our trust is misplaced. Sometimes we’re putting more diligence, time, energy, and emotional resources into our relationship with the special person in our lives than we are in our relationship with God. This will never do.

God wants us to nurture our relationships with others. He loves them just as He loves us, but we can’t allow our care and support for others interfere with our duty and responsibility to the Lord Jesus Christ. First and foremost, we are God’s children and ambassadors for Christ. We have a commitment to fulfill. If we take care of God’s business, we can be assured with every confidence that He will take care of ours. He said in Matthew 7:11(NLT), “So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.” 

Whether it is disharmony in our relationships, health issues, financial problems, and challenges on our jobs, Heavenly Father has the solution through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is where we have to place our hope. You and I don’t know what God knows. Even though situations look impossible, they are not that way to God. Jesus Christ declared in Matthew 19:26 that  “All things are possible with God.”

Hebrews 11:1 (NIV) tells us, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” This tells us that hope is instrumental in developing and increasing our faith. Romans 12:12 tells us that hope is the joyous expectation that God will fulfill His promises in our lives. He’s faithful to His Word, He will not let us down, and that’s why through Jesus Christ, we can anchor our every good hope in God. ■

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Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

New International Version (NIV), Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.