The Anchor For My Soul

For the past few years I have been on a mission. For years I asked people, pastors and leaders around me to help me learn to study the bible.  It is tough to become a student of God’s word. Most of us, myself included become more of a skimmer until we find something that fits what we want to hear.  

No one could really give me any direction or guidance on how to literally study the Bible, no one that is until a great woman of God I know, Ms. Becky, introduced my to a Kay Arthur Bible study called Precept upon precept. Wow. I have never learned more or received more revelation than when I am doing a precept workbook. I was fortunate enough to go to a leader training a few years ago and since then I have done 5 precept studies and am currently starting my sixth, Romans.

I say all that to say this, as I have really learned to be a student of God’s word I am awakened to certain words, currently one of those words is hope. 

Whenever I see the word hope my eyes focus in on the scripture and really look at what it is saying.  I think it is because for a season, quite a long season, I found myself disappointed.  Disappointment makes our hearts sick the only thing that can bring healing to a sick heart is hope.  Hope in Christ to be specific.  It has been through the study of hope that God is healing my heart.  I have learned so much about disappointment and the affects it has on our lives.  I know that disappointment causes me to withdraw from what God is calling me to do.  I know that disappointment causes me to forget what God has spoken over my life.  Disappointment makes me feel inferior and insecure to do what I am gifted to do and called to do.  Disappointment causes me to freeze-frame my life, to stop and settle in to mediocrity. 

Hope does the opposite; it awakens me to my purpose.  Hope reminds me of whom I am in Christ.  Hope is the anchor that holds my life in Christ.  Living with a confident hope brings joy and peace to my life.  Hope is a gift of the Holy Spirit, given to us so that we don’t have to live a disappointed life. 

There are so many things in life that can lead to disappointment but I think most of them can be traced back to unmet expectations.  For instance if I am expecting to get a job and I am passed over for that job disappointment is the result.  It begins to make us feel like we aren’t good enough. I know for me it makes me feel like I am not any good at anything.  As I was reading a book last week God began to speak something in my spirit.  He told me that there is nobody better or more qualified to do what God has called me to do. 

This sounds simple. To some people out there it is an obvious revelation, but how easily we forget it.  How easily we become jealous of others who are successful, we strive to fit into a certain mold, a mold we were never intended to fit and we become frustrated and disappointed with our lives. 

Maybe I am the only one who constantly needs the reminder from the Holy Spirit.  The gentle nudge that I am only required to love him and trust him.  A reminder that I am good enough and well equipped with all I need to do what God is calling me to do, and as always a reminder to trust Him.  This year has been a year of trusting God with my whole heart and learning to lean on him when I don’t understand what is going on around me.  To trust God that He does indeed see the end from the beginning and each time I begin to feel anxious about my future I remember that my hope is not in this world but my hope is in the creator of Heaven and Earth. 

My hope lies at the feet of Jesus, the same feet that were nailed to a cross so that I could be grafted into his family.  What a great hope that is, what else to we need? So please today remember this…

THERE IS NO ONE BETTER OR MORE QUALIFIED TO DO WHAT GOD HAS CALLED YOU TO DO.  

"19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf…. "
Hebrews 6:19-20a