Anchor Awareness
Our Sure Hope
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Yeshua (Jesus) said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again.” (John 3:7)
When we receive Yeshua, we are born again (see John 1:11-13). God creates a new heart in us. (2 Cor. 5:17)
Through our new birth, He seals us in Him with an imperishable seed by the Holy Spirit. (1 Peter 1:23)
We are anchored in God. He is our Anchor.
We are in Him (Colossians 3:3), and He is in us (Colossians 1:25-27), and He is with us (John 14:16-17).
“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us...” (Hebrews 6:19)
Some people talk about “getting closer to God” as if they are trudging up a hill to get to Him. But Scripture teaches us that we are not getting closer, we are there. Our new birth anchors us in Him. If we are “getting closer” to anything, it is to an increased awareness of this reality.
And we do not get full and less full of the Holy Spirit at different times. We feel full when we are aware of and live in His presence. When He came to live in you, all of Him came in!
In Dan Stone and David Gregory’s book The Rest of the Gospel, they give the illustration of a swing with an anchor. The swing represents the noise of our lives. The noise may include happiness, sadness, anxiety, grief, loss, frailty, sickness, failure, temptation, abuse, confusion, misunderstanding, thoughts we like, thoughts we don’t like, small intrusions, and unexpected trauma. We try to stop the noise, but it keeps swinging. The anchor attached to the pole above the swing represents our Father God. The Anchor never moves. His grip is sure and unfailing. And we are in union with Him.
The author says, “I wish I could get the noise to be quiet. Don’t you? But we can’t because we’re not meant to. But we live from that place of perfect stillness and quietness where all simply is... When God has revealed to us this true spirit union, we make our decisions from the Anchor, and they are based on an inner knowing.” O Father, give us revelation in the knowledge of You! You are my Anchor!
A dear friend of mine is going through an unimaginable and unexpected trial. Yesterday, her prayer request was, “Please pray that God would use this difficult event to bring glory to His Name, that people would see things in us that would point them to Him, that His light would shine so brightly in us that people are blinded by His majesty, and that He would take what the enemy meant for evil and turn it to good.” This is what it means to know Him as our Anchor.
Consider the words of these well-known hymns:
There is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God; a place where sin cannot molest, near to the heart of God. (by Cleland Boyd McAfee)
When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay. (Christ the Solid Rock, William B. Bradbury)
In times like these you need a Savior,
In times like these you need an Anchor;
Be very sure, be very sure,
Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!
This Rock is Jesus, Yes He's the One,
This Rock is Jesus, the only One;
Be very sure, be very sure,
Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!
(In Times Like These, Ruth Caye Jones)
Shale Fragments™ - devotionals by Beth Ann Phifer is a division of Flower Girl Greetings, LLC. ©2020, All Rights Reserved.
Blessings and love in Him,
Beth Ann