We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. ~2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (NIV)
Life hurts, both directly and indirectly. Paul says, "we are hard pressed on every side". Have you ever felt pressed on every side? How about crushed? Perplexed? We all do. Paul goes on to say that we don't despair though. Despair means the complete loss or absence of hope. What a great God we serve. No matter what is going on in our lives we don’t have to despair. That is what separates us from the rest of the world when we are hard pressed on every side. It’s hope! We have a hope that many people do not know anything about much less understand and we have the ability to keep our hopes up because our hopes do not rest in what we can finagle in our mind or what we can finagle in our circumstances. Our hopes rest in the Almighty God who says in Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…” (NIV) Scripture teaches our hope is an anchor for our soul. Our hope is what keeps us from being tossed “to and fro” by the storms of life. Is your soul anchored?
Anyone who has spent much time on a boat knows it’s not always as much how you drop the anchor, but where you drop the anchor that keeps you stable. The Lord says in Philippians 2:14-16 “Do everything without complaining or arguing…then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.” (NIV) Holding firmly to the word of life is how you anchor your hope. We anchor our hope in the word of God. It's that rock that we need to hit to keep the boat from dragging in a storm. The whole world is watching. Everyone is looking for truth. We all want the right answers. We are all made from dirt but not all dirt turns to diamonds or rare gems. What turns dirt to diamonds is pressure and how that dirt handles the pressure. When we choose to put our hope in anything other than God’s word we will doubt, worry, and despair and it won’t be it long before we are complaining and arguing and that will dull our luster to a lost world quicker than anything! When you walk out your front door, remember that you are walking into a world full of scared, hurting, and broken people. They are pressed on every side. They are crushed and perplexed. God is sending you to them with His message of hope. He is sending you as a shining example that they can overcome. He wants you to show them how to anchor their hope in His word until they overcome and shine. Don’t pull up your anchor and start acting like the rest of the world. Don’t give in to despair. Put your hope in the Rock of Ages! Go share God’s love with the broke, the broke down and the broken hearted! Get your mind off of you and you won’t have time to despair about how you are going to take care of you. Take care of God’s business and let Him take care of yours. His promises come to pass in our lives when we rest from caring for ourselves. Our work is in giving of ourselves. It’s in sharing the grace we have received and sometimes to those who don’t seem to deserve it. Show others what a life looks like that’s hopes are anchored to the word of God. Demonstrate your faith by being confident in God’s word to you and others. He is working all things together for our good.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. ~Romans 8:28 (NIV)
What word from God is your soul anchored in today?
Write an answer
Write an answer
Comments