April 13, 2009
Anyone who has done any boating knows that you need to be very aware of the weather before you depart on any outing. If you encounter any kind of hostile weather when you’re out in a boat, you have only a few options: 1. Keep going and ride it out. 2. Find a safe harbour where you are protected from the storm and wait for it to pass. 3. Drop anchor, or tie up to a mooring buoy in a safer place and hold on.
Now, I’m no expert seaman by any stretch of the imagination, but I’ve experienced enough to know that a secure anchor is a critical lifeline in the midst of rough waters. We were “camping” once in a yacht on Okanagan Lake, tied up to a mooring buoy. At night the wind picked up, the lake got rough and if our anchor didn’t hold we would have crashed onto the rocky shoreline. When storms whip up you have to know that the anchor you’re tied to is going to withstand the pounding waves.
The same is true for the storms of life. In the midst of the storms that you’re facing right now, what are the anchors of truth that you’re holding onto? We can not expect to sail through life without storms. They are a reality in this life and we’ve got to have anchors of truth to hold us secure in the midst of the storms. Here are a few anchors of truth that I cling to when I’m experiencing the storms of life:
Jesus won’t give up on you!
Philippians 1:6 – “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
You are deeply loved by God!
Romans 8:39 – “neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Jesus will take care of you!
Philippians 4:19 – “And my God will provide for all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
God will show you the way!
Psalm 32:8 – “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.”
Jesus called you, you didn’t call Him – He knows what He’s doing.
John 15:16 – “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name,”
He is bigger than anything you are facing!
Ephesians 3:20 – “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according His power that is at work in us.”
He knows the plan – you don’t – and it’s good!
Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Choose to hang onto God’s anchors of truth. They will hold you secure in the storms of life.
Psalm 27: 13, 14 – I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.
Strength and courage,
David