Are You Anchored?

I love to look up definitions of words as I’m going through my devotionals or a Bible verse to get a better understanding of what I’m reading. I’ve learned so much about things just doing that! I stumbled across the word anchor and it caught my attention. So I looked it up. An anchor is: a reliable or principal support, a mainstay, something that serves to hold an object in place, a source of security or stability, to cause to be fixed in place, to cause to feel attached or secure.

I’m sure if I was sailing out on the ocean and a storm came up, I’d be pretty stoked about the Anchor. I’ve seen the commercials for the movie coming out called Adrift, where a couple attempt to travel 4000 miles at sea and a hurricane hits…first that’s nuts and second…HECK NO!

What else does an anchor help with? 

1.  It helps the boat in heavy weather not to roll in the breaking waves. 

2.  It helps to maintain a heading in strong winds.

3.  Keeps the vessel from drifting.

4.  Helps in case of a steering failure.

When life’s storms hit us is not the time to figure out how to sail our ship or use the anchor! We better have some working knowledge of what we need to do. God’s word is our manual and it’s extremely important to know it. When the waves begin to break over our ship/life the anchor we grab onto is Christ. He is our only answer when we are sinking. He keeps us steady…2 Corinthians 4:17-18, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. ”Our emotions scream at us to do something, say something, buy something, or a lot of other irrational things. We must know God’s word and operate out of our Spirits not our emotions. 

A strong wind/trial can get us off course easily if our anchor is not set. Strong winds can blow up suddenly so we have to be prepared. When we start out in the direction God has for us and the enemy sends a crazy wind from nowhere to knock us off course we have to be able to STAND…Ephesians 6:13, “Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing strong. ”Sometimes we don’t need to DO anything we just need to stand, knowing God is working and all of the high winds, the flying debris, and the floods are just to scare us. That’s the time to trust God.

There are also those times when everything seems to be going great, bills are being paid, kids are not crazy, job looks fine…it’s in those times we can find ourselves loosening our grip on our anchor and starting to drift. It can happen so fast and before you know it you are not even close to the place you should be. Hebrews 10:23a, “We should hold fast to the confession of our hope, unwavering...It’s important to be consistent in studying the Word and our time with Jesus to stay filled up and ready for anything. Satan is always looking for a crack to get through to trip us up.

Sometimes we really think we are heading in the right direction. We’ve prayed and are just sure we know what to do. But we can have a steering failure. Somehow we missed God’s leading, were deceived by the enemy or let our own desires cloud our hearing. Whatever the reason we got off track. It’s never the end of the world, it happens; but God never losses His grip on us. No matter how far we get off course, or how hard the enemy tries to sabotage our lives He can turn it all for our good and His glory. 

It's easy to start to rely on other things. Our income, our mate, our friends, our own talent or abilities etc. We can fall into that trap without realizing it. God may use those things, but it's so important we realize He gave them to us as a blessing but not to trust in them.

All of those things can let us down or fail us at some point. We must hold tight to the anchor that never fails us, Jesus. We can trust that He can hold us when the winds of adversity hit hard, when we get off course and when the waves are crashing over our heads…nothing can capsize our ship when we hold onto Him.