Storms and Anchors

In life, there will be storms.
If you’re not in the middle of one right now, just wait around, because the weather changes pretty quick. And at any moment, a storm could hit.
Sometimes the storm arrives like a tornado. All of the sudden, it’s just there, and you have very little time to prepare. This storm may arrive in the form of a phone call that changes everything. Maybe someone you love has died, you lose your job, or you get an awful diagnosis. Maybe you find something out about someone or you remember something in your past.
Sometimes, the storm comes like a hurricane. You can see it coming for a while, but you can’t do anything about it. Maybe you or someone you love is dealing with cancer or Alzheimer’s. Maybe debt is piling up around you or your marriage is failing at an alarming rate. You may even begin feeling yourself sinking into depression.

Most of the time, we feel like there’s not much we can do about these storms. We feel like our only choice is to “batten down the hatches,” ride it out, and hope we come out OK on the other side. But when we take this approach, we end up being tossed all around like a tugboat in a hurricane. Who knows what destruction we will find when the storm passes? Or if we’re even still afloat when it does?

It’s in the middle of these storms, that we must rely on our anchor.
“What is this anchor?” you may ask, and you may be used to hearing trite quips, like “Let Go and Let God,” or “Just pray about it,” or even “God works in mysterious ways.” While all of those may be true, they’re not always helpful.

When we have a difficult question for a difficult situation, we always need to go to the source of truth, Scripture. The Bible reveals our anchor pretty clearly in Hebrews 6:19-20, 19We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. This verse tells us that we DO have an anchor for our storm, and the anchor is HOPE. But it’s not just blind hope, it’s hope that anchors us to the only ground that will never be shaken. That ground is Jesus Christ. He is the only secure location for our anchor of hope, and he has done all he needs to do to hold our anchor. Through his death and resurrection, he has become our intercessor before God. He never changes, never drifts, is always secure.

You can trust him to hold your anchor, no matter how severe your storm.