The Transcendent Anchor

I know that from time to time, I go with a nautical theme in my writing. Those who know me best understand that my personal experience with sailing, runs in the opposite direction of my metaphors, unless I am speaking of shipwreck. Paul said that he had spent a night and a day in the deep, well, I've spent about fifteen minutes there. Though my vanity won't allow me to further comment on my experience; I do understand more of what I write, by experience.

Anyways, I have been writing about those who go through troubles, trials and storms, with no end in sight. Let's hit the highlights: trials hurt, they are difficult in every way and they are how God works to mature us. I have found that every significant trial that I have gone through, has found its way into my ministering to others. Years ago, when I would cry, "why, God is this happening to me?"; I didn't understand that He was preparing me for years down the road. Now, I can look back and see with great clarity that it is exactly why those things happened.

So, with the present storms, the pertinent question remains: How do we get through it? I must confess that reading another devotional was the impetus for this line of thinking. One of the things that I have marked about those who are where I want to be in my faith, is steadiness. So, how do they do it? There has to be something that stills your soul when you are overcome by fear. Here is where the anchor comes in; it is the experience of knowing God that quiets the hurting soul. Look at what Hebrews 6: 19-20 says. There is a ton of theology in those two verses. First, the hope we have as an anchor of the soul, so no matter what trial the body faces we have a hope that anchors the soul. Secondly, it is a hope that is sure and steadfast because it enters within the veil. Get the imagery of that: this is the Holy of Holies in the Temple. The high priest only entered here once a year on the Day of Atonement, but we have an anchor that is in the Holy of Holies, always. Finally, the hope that we have is Jesus; The High Priest for all time and eternity, not of the tribe of Levi, but from the tribe of Judah, according to the order of Melchizedek (all the way back to Abraham's time.) When Christ entered the Holy of Holies as The High Priest, the veil was torn in two top to bottom; so Christ went before us making the way for us to meet with the Father all of the time. When we accept Christ as Savior; He becomes the anchor of our soul, because what Christ did paid our sin debt for all time: past, present and future. So, what is going to steady your soul when the storms rage on? Knowing that your soul is steadfastly anchored to God.