This world and its ways exist mainly in opposition to our Heavenly Father and His ways. Even those people whom we trust can fail us, though it’s not their intention.
Father designed our souls magnificently, and His gift of our soul and biology grant us the access and ability to exist on earth. Yet, our souls need an anchor to live steady and stable in a world and its inhabitants that spin on orbits away from our Father. Father knows this and went out of His way to give it to us.
The Anchor of Faith – Process of Growth
Faith is an anchor for the soul.
James, the brother of Jesus, addresses this in his directions to ask Father for wisdom.
“But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” (KJV, James 1:6-8).
The word “wavering” is the Greek diakrino (Strong’s G1252). It is translated as “doubt” in the New International Version. This verse sounds heavy-handed on doubt. The earth reality is that there is some processing time to consider, to hear and to heal on many subjects before we come to a solidity of faith. There may be some “doubts” that need to be addressed or resolved in this process.
The King James Version which translated diakrino as wavering speaks with more clarity. Some of diakrino’s meanings include: “to separate; to withdraw from one, desert; to separate one self in a hostile spirit, to oppose, to strive with dispute; to be at variance with one’s self, hesitate, doubt (www.blueletterbible.org).
The process of growing in holiness or sanctification starts and continues with separating from fellowship with the world to have friendship and fellowship with Heavenly Father.
Getting (or staying) steady in faith anchors our soul from being blown like waves of the sea.
He Offers The Anchor of HOPE
Separating back from Father, and returning to hostility, is the wavering to which James refers.
There is a wavering that wants to pull us back to the world, the magnetic pull of the world is strong. It impacts our souls. However, the more of the world (culture’s ways that oppose Father and His ways) we separate from, the more of our soul we have available to continue on in friendship and fellowship with Father.
The very good effect of those choices is to grow solid in faith – and this friendship and faith on our part yield to answered prayer from Father’s part. This is very desirable.
Father knows that our souls face a very challenging task, and are in need of an anchor. He personally went way beyond the call of duty to offer an anchor of HOPE to Abraham’s soul – and through His promise to Abraham to us, also. All who receive the Lord Jesus Christ by His grace through their faith are heirs of Abraham.
Hope stems from desire and expectation — Father promised to bless Abraham (and us) in our desire and expectation with the fruit and harvest of what He promised and we hoped for. Not hope deferred upon hope deferred. Not disappointed, though there may have been false starts.
Hope fulfilled — and Father guarantees it.
Listen to this:
“When God made his promise to Abraham since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument.
Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek” (NIV, Hebrews 6:13-20).
I Double-Covenant You
Father gave the promise to Abraham (and the heirs) that He would surely bless him and give him many descendants. Father knew the opposition to faith that our souls experience on the earth and in the world.
Quite frankly, Abraham lived in an open forum of overt idol worship – ours has been more covert. He wanted Abraham (and you and I, as heirs) to be confident and to be steady, anchored in our souls, that we would trust and have faith in Father to fulfill His word. Further, Father provided the experience and the double-promise that He would back Abraham, thus any honest pull to what idols could provide was removed.
Father made a promise and confirmed it with an oath – these are covenant words. The meaning of covenant has mainly been lost to our modern understanding. For thousands of years of human history, if a covenant was broken, someone would die. Those in covenant would die before they would break covenant promise. Jesus fulfilled this.
Co-Create with Him Your Testimony in the Hall of Faith
Father went out of His way to confirm Abraham’s faith and duly placed trust by saying, I double-covenant you that I will keep My word. Further, He provided Abraham the experience and the memory device (the stars and the sand) to co-create with Him – to trust, to believe, to remember, to give thanks, to have faith.
The author of Hebrews addresses our attention to this pivotal moment when Father provided this anchor for Abraham’s soul – and for ours. Hebrews says that this hope as an anchor for our soul enters the Most Holy, behind the curtain, where our Lord Jesus Christ, High Priest in the order of Melchizedek, entered with His blood – having fulfilled the covenant.
Father revealed His word through our Lord Jesus Christ who is The Word.
In our lifetimes, we have lost the assurance of “earth pictures” of covenant where both sides would choose death over breaking their word (covenant).
We do have the Cross.
Look at the Cross — He chose death over breaking covenant with you and me, though we broke covenant.
By Faith, Give Thanks, then SEE You Can Trust!
Back to faith. Faith rests on the ability to trust. Trust involves knowing and feeling that you’re safe, that the person you trust won’t pull the rug out from under you, and that he/she will be consistent.
All this is revealed in our Lord Jesus Christ, and it shines and resounds from His name, Salvation.
In my life, I’ve endured dreams that seemed negative. I’d awake, heart racing. Nothing about this made me feel safe; it was quite the opposite. Growing in trust had been a theme for me, so I thanked Him for keeping me safe. At that moment! He revealed that His reason for those adrenaline-inducing dreams was to give me what I wanted – safety. He was keeping me safe through His guidance and spotlight on the issue in those dreams!
His Part, the Anchor of Hope Our Part, -Stones of Remembrance
Dear friends, our souls must have an anchor to live stable in this wildly unstable world. Father knows this, and He double-covenanted to Abraham and to us.
Let us process what we need to in order to stake our faith in His Word – which Jesus died to keep (to fulfill).
Then, let us consider elements of trust: safety (I am your shield and defender), Jesus not pulling the rug out from under us (salvation), and Jesus being consistent (He is the same yesterday, today, and forever).
Let us thank Him for His trustworthiness in our lives, and allow Holy Spirit to remind us or to speak to us of where He revealed Himself trustworthy to us. Then, meditate on that.
Allow our emotions and thoughts to go over that experience enough that it builds a stone of remembrance. This is our connection to Him, the ultimate anchor of our soul.
It is actually co-creating our life with Him and will build your testimony in the Hall of Faith.
Our relationship with Him and those anchor points keeps us spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically steady and stable every day, and in these turbulent times.
Remember. And hold onto hope.
Father guarantees your hope in His promises will be fulfilled.
Abraham, our father of faith, proves it!
Israel is the harvest of his God-backed anchored hope.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Hope Streams
Featured Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
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