Hope, The Anchor of our Soul

Over the last few months the words the Lord has been sharing has been to do with hearing his voice. He has been calling us to go into the secret place so that we can listen to him so that he may lead us forward and yet, sometimes, even after doing all we can to hear God’s leading it can still feel as though we still have no clear direction for what lies ahead. Even still, the mature believer will choose to trust him because we know by personal experience that he has never let us down in the past.

Faith is being sure of what we hope for and Certain of we cannot see (Heb 11:1)

Have you ever considered the meaning of those words ? How can we be certain of what we are unable to see ? When we reach for a torch in the darkness, we do that because we know from our past experience that when we switch it on ….. it will light the path ahead. Similarly, in the past, when I have been working with electricity, I know that if I don’t switch the power off at the main, when I touch the wires, I will get a shock. I know that because in the past I have had a shock and I don’t like it. It is not fun.

Both the power for the light that comes from the torch and the electricity at the light switch, are unseen. The power is invisible but still, we know they are real because of our past experiences that assurance they are real. We are certain of what we cannot see and that is the very definition of faith.

Our God is a power far greater than electricity. He too. Is invisible but we know he is there because we have experienced him turn up in our lives. When we encounter Him, we are certain that he exists because of our past experiences. It is our past encounters with God that allows us to be sure of that which we cannot see. That is faith and it grows deeper each time we encounter God afresh and anew.

When another person tries to tell us that God does not exist we area able to stand firm because we remember his faithfulness in the past. We can be certain because we have experienced the reality of God in our lives.

It is because we have encountered God in the experiences of our lives that we know he exists. No matter what anybody else says, we are certain of what we cannot see ...because we have experienced God for ourselves This is the God we seek to know. He may be unseen but he is certainly known. To know God is to be certain of what is unseen because what is unseen in this moment has been very real in our lives in the past. This is so important because for most of our lives we are called to walk by faith. We are called to walk in the certainty of a God who is unseen. He may be unseen but anybody who has met him knows him. Father Abraham was credited as righteous ‘because he had faith’ and just like Father Abraham, you and I are credited by God t o be righteous as we learn to have faith in his son Jesus, who died on the cross to pay for our sins so that we might have eternal life. We are made righteous by our faith as we trust God for the gift of his son Jesus.

Have you ever wondered why in the Psalm 119:105 it says:

The Lord will be a lamp for my feet and a light on my path. (Psalm 119:105)

It is because the lamp lights the way enough for us to see the next step. For every step that will follow we will be required to have faith. That is why God is a lamp to our feet and not a searchlight to the horizon. A searchlight to the horizon would not require faith but a lamp to our feet certainly does.

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all chose to live in tents instead of buildings built with stone because they were believing for something they could not yet see. They were looking forward to a city with foundations whose architect and builder was God. They couldn’t see the city that God had build for them in heaven but, they believed it existed, and it was because they had such hope for the future that they refused to accept second best from this world.

They chose to live in tents because of their great hope in the promises of God for all that lay ahead.

For the patriarchs, a future in heaven with God, even a future they could not see, was so much more valuable than anything this world could offer and they were able to believe for that kind of a future because of the their personal experience that God was a God that had never let them down. They had experienced God first hand in the past and they knew him as a God who kept his promises. He was a God they could trust.

For Abraham, God had supplied a ram in the thicket instead of sacrificing his own son. For Isaac the Lord blessed him with a hundred fold of all that he planted. As for Jacob, God blessed him with a new name, Israel, and his sons would become the seed of a nation whose people would be numbered as the sand of the seashore.

Each of the Patriarchs knew God by personal experience. They trusted in a God they could NOT see but he was a God with whom they had a rich personal experience.

Our God is only invisible until he meets us. When he meets us we know for sure that he is real and that’s when our faith becomes deeply personal.

Nothing this world can offer must be allowed to take the place of our willingness to trust God and his promises. For the patriarchs, their hope lay in the promises of God not in the things of this world. They had hope for all that lay ahead even though they couldn’t see it … because they trusted God.

Hope as the anchor for our soul (Heb 6:19)

Have you ever wondered why scripture calls HOPE the anchor for our soul. It is because our soul is the place where our feelings and our emotions and our intellect reside. These are our parts of our humanity which we cannot rely upon. These are the part of us that need to be anchored by something far more unshakeable than the things of this world.

Hope, that rises out of our faith in God does not depend on our feelings or our emotions. Our soulish nature needs to be anchored against the things that cause us to fear and cause us to be confused and angry and frustrated and filled with doubt. We don’t dare trust in our fleshly emotions and feelings because when we do that is when fear rises up.

Our soul that needs anchored in the truth and the knowledge of God because if it is not, the things of this world will too easily shake our emotions and our feelings and yes even our thoughts. We need to anchor our soul with something far more reliable than our feelings and our emotions and that is why ‘God provided us with a hope that is rooted in Him’ and he called it an anchor for our soul.

When we trust in the things of this life, it affects our feelings and our emotions which can never provide us with the assurance that we need. There is no solid rock apart from God in this life that is why he has called us to be a people of faith. When we have faith we are able to trust him no matter the circumstances around us.

Hope rises out of our willingness to trust God. It is our hope in God that is the only thing that provides us with the anchor when the waters of life get really rough.

Faith gives us hope for the future ….. even though we can’t see what is coming next. Hope rises out of that faith to anchor us against the raging waters of our feelings and our emotions that are so easily affected by the world about us.

What is it that God is saying to us through this word

I believe that the Lord is allowing us to see that we own something that is very valuable. There are so many people in our world who are without hope. They are looking to find hope from the things that they can see and understand But, they are looking in all the wrong places. It will only ever be as we make the choice to trust God that Hope will rise. Hope is the gift that we unwarp as we learn how ……. to trust God by faith and we have to be willing to share the gift that God has given us.

I know the plans I have for you, plans to bless you and not to harm you to give you a hope and a future. (Jer 29:11)

Faith responds to our invisible God.. As we learn to put our hope in the goodness of God to keep his promises, then no matter what our feelings or our emotions tell us …when trouble comes we will be able to stand fast and not be rocked because our hope is found God alone. WE will discover what it means to be firmly anchored when we learn to place our hope Hope in God.

In Hebrews 11:6. We read that without faith it is impossible to please God.

Without faith, fear rises up and fear is not from God. Israel had no idea that when they left Egypt laden down with wealth, that Pharoah would change his mind and set out with his entire army bent on destroying the Hebrew slaves.

God allowed this trouble to come after Israel so that he could show himself. He allowed them to get backed up against the great ocean so that they would know him and trust him. God used trouble to teach them to put their hope and their trust in their him.

It’s the same with us. The circumstances of life will often force us to call out to God because God doesn’t want us to move in our own strength. Faith is a choice that we need to make, but it is a choice we are often unwilling to make until we have no other choice.

Without faith it is impossible to please God … Heb 11:6. [but it is through faith that our God shows himself to be the God of the impossible]

God desires us to be a people of Faith and he wants us to be the light of the world.

We live in the midst of a world that is so afraid and we are surrounded by so many who have no hope. The message that the Lord is sharing today is a message we are able to bring to those who are lost and afraid and have no idea where to turn. As people learn to trust God and put their Hope in Him and his promises … fear is defeated and hope begins to rise.

Those without God are so quickly controlled by what is seen. Those who put their trust in God have learned what it means to trust in the unseen. The Lord my God is my great Hope. He alone is the anchor of my soul.

Amen, Amen and Amen.