We sung today, “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow!” What a blessed life we have dear brothers and sisters! Our lives are a blessed life because we have a living hope. Let us look today at Hebrews 6:19, “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil,” Here the Holy Spirit writes; the anchor of our soul is our hope. A huge ship is anchored in the deep sea with an anchor that goes deep into the water and embeds in the sea bed. No storm can move that ship. Our Christian life is also anchored with our hope. Sometimes in our normal conversations we use the word ‘hope’. We say, “I hope he comes” or “I hope he does well in the exams”. But this hope that we talk about has no guarantee that it will happen. But the hope that God gives us is sure and steadfast. In verse 11 we read, “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end.” We should have the full assurance of hope until the end.
A life without hope has no meaning. People around us who have no hope in God are perishing. Families are broken because they don’t have hope. But God has given us this hope. We were also at some point without hope. In Ephesians 2:12 we read, “remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” In Ephesians 4:4 we read, “here is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling.” But by God’s grace, He has given us one hope. In Romans 8:24,25 we read, “For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.” In hope we have been saved. This hope is the anchor of our souls and we should be firm on it. The foundation of our Christian life is this hope.
We can live a joyful Christian life because we have this hope as our anchor. In Romans 12:12 we read, “Rejoice in the hope”. This living hope helps us to live without despair through any storms that may come in our life. We can’t drift away of our hope is secure in God. We sing a song, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness” with the chorus “On Christ the solid rock I stand”. When we have this hope there is no place for disappointment. In Psalms 42:5 we read, “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence”. In verse 11 we read, “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.” In Psalms 43:5 we see the Psalmist repeats this again. The Psalmist is encouraging himself – There is a situation for you to get despaired, but put your hope in God. Even in our difficult times, we can be encouraged to put our hope in God. When situations are not going as per our desires and the world around us says that there is no hope, we must remember that we have a hope secure in our God. When we see our spiritual condition and tend to be despaired and are discouraged by Satan’s words, but remember that we have a hope in God. We have to rejoice in the hope.
In Mathew 12:20,21 we read, ““A battered reed He will not break off, And a smoldering wick He will not put out, Until He leads justice to victory. And in His name the Gentiles will hope.” Maybe our condition is like a battered reed or a smoldering wick, but still we have hope. What a wonderful God we have! In a smoldering wick, the flame has gone out and there is only smoke; but even in that condition God wants us to have hope. When all doors always close before us, the door of hope will always be open for us. We read of Abraham that he had hope against hope. We know of when Ezekiel saw all the dry bones and God asked him, “Do you think these dry bones can live?” We also see these dry bones and it may look like there is no hope of life. But God can bring life and also make an exceedingly great army out of the dry bones. In the gospel how Jesus turned ordinary tasteless water into the best wine at the wedding of Cana. God can do wonderful things in our Christian life. Let us have hope. In Jeremiah 18 we read of the potter and the clay. The potter was making a vessel of clay but it didn’t come out the way that the potter intended. Jeremiah may have thought that the clay was going to be thrown out. But the potter used this spoilt clay and remade it into a vessel as he wished. Whatever may be the state of our spiritual condition, God can reuse our broken and spoilt parts. We just need to put ourselves into God’s hands. Let us put our hope and trust in God. Let us check if our anchor if deeply embedded in the seabed or is it floating in the tossing sea.
In 1 Corinthians 11:26 we read, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” When we break bread, we must remember it is with a great hope that our Lord is coming soon to receive us. When He comes, we will be like Him and with Him forever. This is our great hope. In 1 John 3:2,3, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” Those who have this hope in God, they have a responsibility to purify themselves. We will see Him and we will be like Him. Let us purify ourselves and prepare our life for His coming. This hope is the anchor of our soul.
