Daily Encouragement

Monday, October 24, 2022

"Christ the Sure and Steady Anchor"

(Part 1)

Note: Our pastor uses the phrase "anchor passage" to describe verses that are foundational to our faith. All this week we will be using both the same verse and theme song as anchors for a consideration of the hope and assurance we have in Christ. After today's introductory message we will consider twelve blessings concerning our anchor of hope in Christ, three each day.

Message summary: Rest in this blessed assurance: God and His Word provide hope for the only steady anchor and sure foundation for the soul. Today let us focus on the immutable God whose Word has promised: "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal" (Isaiah 26:3,4).

Listen to this message on your audio player.

"We who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Hebrews 6:19).

Along Plymouth Harbor is one of our favorite seascape sites, the old, very rusty, anchor that has been there ever since we first visited Plymouth in 1993. Today let us consider the anchor for the soul based on one of my all time favorite Scripture passages. "We who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Hebrews 6:19).

How thankful we are for the blessed anchor of hope we have in Jesus! This anchor is eternally firm and secure. The daily verse is the only place in the Bible where the word "anchor" is used figuratively. It is also used literally in Acts 27 during Paul's shipwreck (v.29). The Greek word is Aγκυρα, pronounced "ankura" (our English "anchor" is merely a transliteration of this word). The capital of Turkey, Ankara, is based on this word.

The anchor was used in the Greek world as a picture for hope. Jon Courson writes,

"In the catacombs of Rome, where Christians hid in times of persecution, one symbol can be seen more than any other: the anchor. No matter what storms come our way, we are anchored in the Word of God, in the promises He made. We have this sure hope that He will do what He says. So don’t go back to temple worship, entreats the author. Don’t go back to heathen practices, to partying, to wherever else you came from. Be anchored in the immutable, unchangeable, sure, and steadfast Word of God."*

The anchor has long been a theme in many Christian hymns. Yesterday in church we sang a hymn with the line, "My anchor holds within the veil". (Extra credit for all who can identify this hymn based on that line alone! But we answer below.)

For the last several years we have been blessed by a newer anchor-themed song by Matt Boswell and Matt Papa titled "Christ the Sure and Steady Anchor". (We'll post a link to listen below and encourage you to check it out)

Christ the sure and steady anchor,
In the fury of the storm;
When the winds of doubt blow through me,
And my sails have all been torn.

In the suffering, in the sorrow,
When my sinking hopes are few;
I will hold fast to the anchor,
It will never be removed.

Believers all throughout the ages have received assurance in their hearts as they consider the security an anchor provides in the midst of battering storms. Consider the early part of the daily verse, "We who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged".

This hope is what the believer has "fled to take hold of". We need to flee from worldly sources for hope, as they are always temporal and inadequate. The hope Jesus offers is the only true and lasting source of hope that is endless. Once we firmly take hold of this hope we are indeed "greatly encouraged".

"Hope", as used in the Bible, is not a wishful thought but a confident expectation of absolute certainty. The Holman Bible Dictionary offers this insight: "Hope is the confidence that what God has done for us in the past guarantees our participation in what God will do in the future."

Perhaps your soul feels pounded upon by a storm of adversity even as you read this today. Or there may be a storm on the horizon. If things seem steady in your personal life you don't have to look far to see the unsteadiness in the world around you! Today we want to encourage you to ground your faith in the anchor that is steadfast, weathering the worst storms of life. Truly, this anchor of hope we have in Jesus Christ is firm and secure!

Rest today in this blessed assurance: God and His Word provide the steady anchor and sure foundation for the soul. Today let us focus on the immutable God, whose Word has promised: "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal" (Isaiah 26:3,4).

Christ the sure of our salvation,
Ever faithful, ever true!
We will hold fast to the anchor,
It shall never be removed.

Be encouraged today, (Hebrews 3:13)

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, help us not to resent the storms of life or be fearful of their effects. Much like we prepare for a ravaging storm by anchoring valuables to a firm foundation, help us to anchor our souls in the firm foundation of Your Word that will help us to withstand the testings and trials of life that are certain to come our way. May we have an assurance of Your absolute reliability, not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. Amen.

Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources

"Christ the Sure and Steady Anchor" Video Matt Boswell and Boyce College Choir. This would be a great congregational song! We are blessed to see the expressive earnestness that these young people sing with.

"My anchor holds within the veil" comes from the hymn "The Solid Rock" Yesterday we sang a song that incorporates parts of this hymn in a song called "Cornerstone" Video Calvary Church choir and orchestra

Here's a quote written about 350 years ago by Jeremy Taylor. It fully embraces the timetable of the Gospel journey and is a great focus for the believer using in part a nautical theme:

"Faith is the Christian's foundation,
Hope is his anchor,
Death is his harbor,
Christ is his pilot,
And heaven is his country."

Contemplate this thought-provoking quote: "In order to realize the worth of the anchor, one needs to feel the stress of the storm." Faith is put to the test and is best demonstrated during the deepest of trials.

* (Courson, J. Jon Courson's Application Commentary. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson)

Survey: We posted this Friday as well. If you would care to do so we have prepared a short survey (it takes about two minutes). Since we know little about many of our readers and podcast listeners we find this helpful in having a sense of who you are and how you are using our materials. Click here to take survey. We will share some geographical results from this survey later this week but thus far our most distant reader is from Perth Australia which is some 11,500 miles away. This prompted my curious mind to wonder what is the farthermost apart two people can be on earth. I studied it and so can you but I will share later this week!

Personal note: We shared last Friday that it was both Brooksyne's birthday and the 26th anniversary of our Daily Encouragement ministry. We had planned to go out to dinner together at the Shady Maple but the day just didn't go as expected. Ester was having chest pains and low oxygen saturation for several days so Brooksyne took her to the ER at our newest hospital in Lancaster since it is still a Hershey hospital but about half the distance. Within hours she was transferred to the BIG hospital in Hershey where she has been cared for since 2001, since the medical team felt that her heart repairs were more significant than they felt prepared to deal with. She was admitted, observed and tested over the weekend and still no absolutes as to what was causing the chest pain or the low sats. With supplemental oxygen her sats are now at an acceptable level. Due to Ester's many heart surgeries she deals with a lot of scar tissue, so the medical team is speculating that she may be dealing with acid reflux that presents extra compression on her chest. She came home Saturday evening. Ester will see her cardiologist on Friday and has further testing scheduled. As always, we place her in the hands of the Lord who has seen her through a lot of critical heart matters. I think a theme song for Ester would be the second verse of Amazing Grace: "Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come. 'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home."

Early Friday morning I had breakfast with Mark Pulliam. He was Brooksyne's and my boss about twenty years ago when we worked for Marketplace Chaplains (a national company). At a gathering in his house in late 2001 he served pineapple pie. I must have raved about it. Ever since that time when we meet he brings along pineapple pie(s) and my oh my, they're just as good as the first one!

Friday morning Brooksyne took Ester to a brand new hospital, a branch of the Hershey Medical Center here in Lancaster County (see here) which opened earlier this month.

It's quite common now to see the plugins for electric cars in parking lots, but here in Lancaster County our new hospital considered the much greater need for a large population of our local folks, and constructed a shelter for horse and buggy, including the watering hose.

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