Anchor Of The Soul

Who'd a thunk just a year ago we would be on a collision course with a world-wide pandemic! Exactly one year ago from this writing I was making final preps for a trip to Honduras for a week to share Gospel of the Jesus. It was an awesome trip! Just three months after my return to the States we were in a lock-down and the world was in panic. Who had any idea that 2020 would turn out the way it has? We began the year just like any other one. Then...BOOM!

The year 2020 has been infinitely different. We have been extensively challenged. The word normal applies only to the first 56 days of the year! So much has changed in response to the challenge. But, my friend, One thing has not changed. One person has not changed. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Who is this? Jesus Christ, of course. Not only is He the same, but the principles of His Kingdom are the same. They haven't changed. His love is the same, it has not changed. Jesus is the Rock of all ages, the Ancient of Days, the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end!

Because Jesus hasn't changed, and because He is still on His throne (and never left), we can trust Him to do what He promises in His Word. A pandemic doesn't change Jesus. A highly contested election doesn't change His Word. Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away." (Matthew 24:35) The world may change, but Jesus never changes! That's why we can entrust every aspect of our life to Him.

"In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." (Hebrews 6:17-20)

The above passage speaks of the "unchangeableness of His purpose", "unchangeable things", "we who have taken refuge", "the hope set before us", and "an anchor of the soul". If you know Jesus as your Savior, and if you are learning and applying His Word, there is no reason for you to live in hopelessness and fear...even during a world-wide pandemic! But instead, because of His unchangeableness you should live in hope and expectation of Jesus fulfilling ALL of His promises you are holding to.

All year I have heard folks begging for 2020 to be over. But understand that when we face the greatest of challenges, it is in those challenges we anchor to the Rock of Ages! It's in the struggle that we trust deeper and discover a hope both sure and steadfast. That's when Jesus moves in you and through you. The course that was set for the 2020 was not to destroy you, but to shake you. It's in the shaking we evaluate our relationship with Jesus. It's in the shaking that we are forced to "take hold of the hope set before us".

So don't be so quick to wish and even pray that 2020 would be over. God is doing a phenomenal work in those who are anchored to the Rock. And the truth is, we don't know what 2021 holds. But we DO know the One who holds 2021 in the palm of His hand. That's all that really matters.