Mike
Scriptures:
Hebrews 6:13-20 Luke 24:50-51 Revelation 22:1-2
During my teenage years, I was a member of the Boys Brigade, it was an organisation founded by Sir William Alexander Smith in 1883, who formed a group of about 30 boys with an object of teaching the advancement of Christ’s kingdom and to promote the habits of obedience, reverence, discipline and self-respect among the lost youth of Glasgow. The organisation rapidly spread across the UK. The motto of the Boys Brigade was, "Sure and Stedfast" and there is a hymn that has always been closely associated with this organisation. It was written in 1883/4 by Priscilla Owens (1829–1907)
The first verse says:
Will your anchor hold in the storms of life,
When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?
When the strong tides lift and the cables strain,
Will your anchor drift, or firm remain?
Refrain:
We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love.
The words were inspired by the Epistle to the Hebrews, (6:13-20).
Heb 6:19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
Heb 6:20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
Hebrews reminds us that we have “a sure and stedfast” anchor for our life in the person and work of Jesus Christ, so in any storm we must secure ourselves to that fixed anchor point, a place that will hold us secure to the truth in the contrary winds of social revolutions and competing philosophies. Simply, we need to find this anchor point in the identity of the One who is sovereign over the storm.
But what is competing against us? The events and circumstances of this life, the storms that befall us on a daily basis. For the believer, there is nothing that will securely anchor us to this life, moth and rust will decay the chains that supports the anchor, storms and high winds will strain those chains to breaking point.
When a ship is at sea and storms rage against that ship, the captain will lower an anchor through the dark waters in the hope of finding an anchoring point on the ocean’s floor. In olden times, as early as the Bronze Age, and certainly during the times of the Greeks and the Romans, anchors were made of baskets filled with rocks. Strong tides would lift and strain those ropes and baskets of rocks that keep the ship from being driven onto the jagged rocks of this life.
But our anchor is not made of baskets of rocks and ropes that would break. We have an anchor that keeps us safe, grounded firmly and deeply in the love of our Saviour. When Jesus ascended from the disciples into heaven as our forerunner, He translated our anchor into heavenly places and allowed us to be chained to the immovable Rock that fills eternity. He planted our anchor in the pure river of Water of Life, clear as crystal, which is Eternal and proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, anchored securely to the Tree of Life.
We do not need to flounder in the dark oceans of this life hoping that our anchor can overcome the contrary tides and raging winds that come against God’s children. Although we cannot stop these storms coming against us, we can be sure that our anchor is secure to our Rock in the crystal waters of the River of Life and will never fail in the strongest storms that we face.
Prayer: Father God, thank You that we can know beyond doubt that the immovable Rock that is our Anchor will never fail, it will always hold fast. Amen