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An Anchor that Holds

I have a picture of myself on the ocean. I am clinging to a single piece of driftwood. The wreckage a piece of wood from the very ship I had trusted to take me to the other side.

Have you been in a storm lately? There is nothing like a storm to reveal what we have been trusting in. The Bible has a lot to say about this subject.

The first thing that comes to mind for me is Isaiah 54, beginning at verse 11:

“Afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted,
Behold, I will set your stones in antimony,
And I will lay your foundations with sapphires.
12 Moreover, I will make your battlements of rubies,
And your gates of crystal,
And your entire wall of precious stones.
13 All your sons will be taught by the Lord;
And the well-being of your sons will be great.
14 In righteousness you will be established;
You will be far from oppression, for you will not fear;
And from terror, for it will not come near you.”

This is a description of a people who are immovable when attacked. It promises, “you will be established.” This word established is used in Scripture to mean: to be set up, to be firmly established and stable, to be secure, to be enduring, to be steadfast (in the moral sense), to be prepared, to be ready, and to be settled. These are all things we desire.

We all want this steadiness. It is revealed in the way we seek the comfort of familiarity—favourite foods, repeated routines, and even the way we sit in the same pew or chair at church every week. These things are reassuring, but they are outward. They do not denote internal stability we need to carry us in the storms of life. As humans, we tend to appreciate stories of survival where a protagonist fights something all on their own. When they find the grit or internal fortitude to make a way out for themselves. The Christian walk is different.

Hebrews 6:“17 In the same way God, desiring even more to demonstrate to the heirs of the promise the fact that His purpose is unchangeable, confirmed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to hold firmly to the hope set before us.
19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and reliable and one which enters within the veil.”

You can see in these verses the repetition of the promise of an established life for those who believe in God.

I want to go to another description of this kind of immovability found in the parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:20 The one sown with seed on the rocky places, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. 21 Yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution occurs because of the word, immediately he falls away.”

A failure to have a firm root in himself refers to the lack of the kind of steadfastness God promises. It says he receives the word, so this is a believer. But the word has not been applied in his heart of hearts. He has a superficial faith that has not reached the secret place. If we were to investigate, we would discover this person has not used the Bible as the plumbline in his life. He has a “stony heart,” one not established in a habit of repentance. Like we see in David’s prayer in Psalm 51:6:

“Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,
And in secret You will make wisdom known to me.”

This tells me that I must be honest with God in the parts that no one else sees. This is the only way to develop a stable Christian faith. In contemporary church I see an outward declaration of Scripture. We use them like labels we to stick on our suits every week. I can pray “in Jesus’ Name” and “plead the blood.”  I wonder about the efficacy of these statements. Does the saying of those words, in and of themselves, do something? When we do not apply them on a deeper level, they do not have the effect of making us a person more likely to survive a storm.

The stony parts of our heart must be plowed up through repentance for the roots to grow deep enough to make us a tree capable of withstanding the storms of life. Which brings us to Psalm 1.

“1 Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers.
2 But his delight is in the Law of the Lord, And on His Law he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season,
And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.”

This is a picture of a deeply rooted life—the heart that is good ground in the parable of the Sower. It is ground which yields fruit.

Luke 6: “46 Now why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? 47 Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like.48 He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock. When there was a flood, the river burst against that house, and yet it could not shake it, because it had been well built.49 But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The river burst against it, and it immediately collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”

How do we “dig deep” to lay a foundation for our house so that storms will not shake us?

The verses in Luke 6 tell us it is obedience. I must also turn away from the things in my heart that do not align with Scripture. It is a plowing of my heart, as described in the parable of the Sower. It is the meditation on His law, day and night as found in Psalm 1 and a prayer for God to reveal truth in my inward parts as in Psalm 51.

Hebrews 6 told me that my faith, though, must trust in Christ as my anchor—not in the rightness of my heart.

There will be a day that will come for all of us; none will be exempt. When we appear before the Creator and Judge of the earth. I have had a pastor teach me the word of God, lead me in worship of that God and who prayed for my protection. But he will not be beside me on that day. He will not sponsor me or vouch for my worthiness. None of us will have any other advocate other than Jesus. None of us will be able to produce anything that cancels our need for mercy.

On that day, will our faith be in Him alone.

Will He be able to say, “I know you”?

It is my invitation to you today to read and seek to apply the truth found in Scripture. Pray and ask Jesus to reveal your inward parts to you.

I can hide inner motivations from God. I can even hide from myself. This is why I need to be in transparent relationships with others. I absolutely need to be vulnerable with another human being about my struggles. Sometimes true course correction can only come when someone else is willing to tell me the truth.

Go deep.

All the love friends.