My Anchor Holds
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Hope is a Support for the Family
Hope means looking expectantly.
Psalm 16:8 KJV:
I [David] have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Hope expectantly considers that the promises of God will come to pass in His timing and with His power.
Hebrews 3:6 APNT:
Now Christ, as the Son, [is] over his house. And we are his house, if we hold fast the boldness and the boasting of his hope to the end.
Early Anchors
Originally, people tied their boats to just a stone. Later, they added a hole to the stone.
Then they started combining stones with wood so they could add multiple stones. That could serve as an anchor for a larger boat.
Eventually, they added a heavy piece of metal with a hole in the middle. Then they added arms to it.
They combined metal with other elements.
I went to a college called Hope College, and their motto was Hebrews 6:19.
Hebrews 6:10–12 APNT:
10 For God is not wicked, that he forgets your works and your love that you have shown in his name, for you have ministered and do minister to the holy [ones].
11 But we want each one of you to show this diligence to the completion of your hope up to the end
12 and to not be discouraged, but to be imitators of those who by faith and long-suffering have become heirs of the promise.
Hope is something we expect, but we must hold fast to it, giving us full assurance that what God said will absolutely come to pass. Jesus Christ is coming back!
This longsuffering (verse 12) is going to be explained using Abraham as an example.
Hebrews 6:13–14 APNT:
13 For when God promised Abraham, because he had no one who was greater than himself by whom he could swear, he swore by himself
14 and said: I will certainly bless you and I will greatly multiply you.
God made a three-fold promise to Abraham. First, God told Abraham that he would become the father of many nations. Second, God told Abraham that from his seed would come the Messiah. Third, God gave Abraham a portion of land by the Mediterranean Sea that would belong to Abraham and his children, forever.
Hebrews 6:15 NLT:
Then Abraham waited patiently, and he received what God had promised.
He didn’t receive or even see the part about the land or the many nations, but he received his son—and that was enough to convince him that every other part of the promise was going to come to pass.
It’s the same with us; we received the seed of Holy Spirit within us. We know that God is our Father. That’s the confirmation that we have, every single day, to know that the rest of the promises are going to come to pass, too.
Hebrews 6:15 APNT:
And so he was long-suffering and received the promise.
Long-suffering is sort of a King James word that basically means “long of spirit.” We are going to stay her and not budge. Now we can start to see how hope is an anchor. When a ship anchored in a port, it would stay right there.
Hebrews 6:16 APNT:
For men swear by that which is greater than them and concerning every controversy that happens among them, the certain end of it is by oaths.
When we sign a contract, we commit to fulfilling its terms. But God said that He made an oath. For us, a contract is only as good as the persons who signed it. Well, God signed His contract.
Hebrews 6:17–20 APNT:
17 Because of this, God especially wanted to show to the heirs of the promise that his promise would not change, so he bound it wit h oaths,
18 that by two things that are unchangeable in which God is not able to lie, we who have sought refuge in him may have great comfort and may hold fast to the hope that was promised to us,
19 which we have as an anchor that holds our soul, so that it is not shaken [both sure and steadfast, KJV] and it enters within the veil,
20 where Jesus previously entered for us and became a priest forever in the likeness of Melchisedec.
“Enters within the veil,” refers to entering through the veil in the temple, into the holy of holies, where God dwells. This kind of free access was never available to people before Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 6:19–20 NLT:
19 This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. 20 Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.
The hope is within the veil; it’s inside the sanctuary. That’s where our anchor needs to go into the solid rock, which is Christ.
YouTube Move (Keep Walkin’) by TobyMac:
Galatians 3:14 APNT:
that the blessing of Abraham would be on the Gentiles by Jesus Christ and [that] we would receive the promise of the Spirit by faith.
The Spirit is the guarantee, the proof, that we are going to have everything else, too.
Galatians 3:15–18 APNT:
15 My brothers, I speak as among men, because a covenant of man that is established, no man sets aside or changes anything in it.
16 Now the promise was promised to Abraham and to his seed. And he did not say to him, “To your seeds” as to many, but to your seed as to one, who is the Messiah.
17 And this I say, that the covenant, which was previously established by God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, is not able to set it aside and make the promise void.
18 Now if the inheritance was by the law, then it was not by promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise.
We have not only the fulfillment of what Christ is in us right now, but it’s a guarantee of the complete inheritance.
That’s our hope and our anchor.
Colossians1:23 APNT:
Since [this is so], continue in your faith, your foundation being firm, and be not shaken from the hope of the gospel that you heard [and] that was preached in all the creation that is under heaven, of which I, Paul, am a minister.
All of us are ministers of the hope of this gospel.
Scripture References
Scripture quotations marked (APNT) taken from the Aramaic Peshitta New Testament Translation: With explanatory footnotes marking variant readings, customs and figures of speech, Copyright © 2006 by Janet M. Magiera, Light of the Word Ministry, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission. (www.lightofword.org)
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188, USA. All rights reserved.
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