The Anchor Holds!

This very day many are suffering in dire circumstances of war and natural disaster. Our hearts and our hands go out to those who have suffered unimaginable trauma.  
A question looms in the minds of those affected:

Is there ANY hope?

When faced with difficult circumstances, the Psalmist was also on the verge of despair.  He wrote: "My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to 
me all day long, 'Where is your God?'" (Psalm 42:3).  Yet, he reminded himself of 
the ONLY true source of hope in any and every circumstance: "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God" (Psalm 42:5).

Is there any hope?  YES!  Our hope is in God.

A preacher was putting the finishing touches on a sermon that he was soon to deliver when his telephone rang.  Answering the phone the preacher heard the words of a student: "Last night my child died."  The preacher thought to himself, "What can I say to him?"  Then he made up his mind: "I will say to him what I would say to anyone. It's captured in this gospel song [by Edward Mote]:

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.

On Christ, the Solid Rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

Because of Christ, one may proclaim along with the writer of the book of Hebrews: "This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast"  (Hebrews 6:19).  An anchor is used to provide stability, even in the times of storm.  
In the same way, one's hope in Christ gives stability in the storms that life brings.  
This hope extends beyond the storms of this life – even beyond the grave – to an eternity with God in the Paradise of Heaven (Revelation 21:4).

The basis of this hope is a relationship with God -- who loved us so much that He gave His Son to die for our sins so that we might have hope beyond the troubles of this life.  We can share in this hope if we will believe in Christ and trust Him (Acts 16:31), repent of our sins (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), be baptized (immersed) for the forgiveness of our sins (Acts 2:38), and "LIVE" in this hope by continuing to follow Him (1 John 1:7; 3:3).

Are YOU downcast and disturbed with the struggles of this life?  Put YOUR hope in God.  He ALONE is our Savior and our God - the anchor for our soul.  

And the Anchor holds! 

God bless you,

David A. Sargent, Minister 

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

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