An anchor is usually a metal device that is attached to a ship or boat by
a cable and cast overboard to hold the ship in a particular place. Once the
captain arrives at his destination, he puts the anchor down. That way he
won’t drift and end up where he doesn’t want to be. When the boat is
anchored, it may move a little bit with the waves and the winds, but the
captain is not worried. He can relax, because he knows the anchor is
down.
The Scripture tells us that hope is the anchor of our soul. What’s
going to keep your soul in the right place, what’s going to cause you to
overcome challenges and reach your dreams, is being anchored to hope.
That means that no matter what you face, no matter how big the obstacle,
no matter how long it’s taking, you know God is still on the throne. You
know His plans for you are for good, that He’s bigger than any obstacle,
and that His favor is surrounding you. When you are anchored to this
hope, nothing can move you. The winds, the waves, and the dark storms
of life may come, but you’re not worried. You have your anchor down.
You receive a bad medical report, which would get a lot of people
upset and negative, but not you. You’re anchored to hope. “I know that
God is restoring health to me.” You go through a loss or a
disappointment, and your emotions are pulling you toward bitterness and
depression. But there’s something that’s holding you back. You can’t
explain it, but deep down you hear that voice saying, “Everything is
going to be all right. God has beauty for these ashes.” That’s the anchor
of hope. Maybe your dream looks impossible. You don’t have the
connections or the resources, and every voice says, “Give up! It’s never
going to happen. You’re wasting your time.” Most people would throw in
the towel, but your attitude is, I may not see a way, but I know God has a
way. He’s opening doors that no man can shut. Favor is in my future.
When you’re anchored to hope, God will make things happen that you
could never make happen.
But I’ve learned that there will always be something trying to get us
to pull up our anchor—bad breaks, delays, disappointments. In these
tough times, when life doesn’t make sense, when your prayers weren’t
answered, when it’s taking longer than you thought it would, you have to
make sure to keep your anchor down. If you pull it up, you’ll drift over
into doubt, discouragement, and self-pity. When you’re anchored to hope,
it’s as though you’re tied to it. You can’t go very far. You may have
thoughts of doubt that say, “This problem is never going to work out.”
But your faith will kick in. “No, I know the answer is already on the
way.” On paper, it may tell you that it will take you thirty years to get out
of debt. You could accept it, but because you’re anchored to hope, there’s
something in you that says, “I know that God can accelerate it. I know
that explosive blessings are coming my way.” Your children may be off
course, and it doesn’t look as though they’ll ever change. You could
become discouraged, but you’re tied to hope. Every time those negative
thoughts come, trying to pull you away, your anchor kicks in. “As for me
and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
My question is, do you have your anchor down? Do you have that
hope, that expectancy that your dreams are coming to pass, that you’re
going to break that addiction, that your family is going to be restored? Or
have you pulled up your anchor, and now you’ve drifted into doubt,
mediocrity, not expecting anything good? Put your anchor back down.
Scripture says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for.” You can’t
have faith if you don’t first have hope. You have to believe that what God
put in your heart will come to pass, that you will accomplish your
dreams, that you’ll meet the right people, that you’ll live healthy and
whole.
Be a Prisoner of Hope
One time David had a lot coming against him. He felt overwhelmed by
life. Everything just kept getting worse. He was down and discouraged
and had given up on his dreams. He was stuck in a very dark place. But
then he finally said, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? Hope in the
Lord.” He realized that he’d let his circumstances cause him to pull up his
anchor of hope. He said, in effect, “I’m going to put my anchor back
down. I’m going to hope in the Lord.”
You may not see any reason to be hopeful. It doesn’t look as though
you’ll ever get well, ever get married, ever start that business. You have
to do as David did and hope in the Lord. Don’t put your hope in your
circumstances; they may not work out the way you want. Don’t put your
hope in people; they may let you down. Don’t put your hope in your
career; things may change. Put your hope in the Lord, in the God who
spoke worlds into existence, in the God who flung the stars into space.
When you have your hope in Him, the Scripture says you’ll never be
disappointed. You may have some temporary setbacks, life will happen,
but when it’s all said and done, you’ll come out better than you were
before.
The prophet Zechariah said it this way: “Return to your fortress, you
prisoners of hope, and I will restore double what you lost.” To be a
“prisoner of hope” means you can’t get away from it. You’re anchored to
it. You should be discouraged, but in spite of all that’s come against you,
you still believe as Joseph did that you’re going to see your dream come
to pass. You should be overwhelmed by the size of the obstacles you are
facing. Goliath looked stronger and more powerful, but like David, you
have your hope in the Lord. You know that if God is for you, none will
dare be against you. That sickness may seem as though it’s going to be
the end of you. You could be worried and feel stressed out, but you know
nothing can snatch you out of God’s hand. Your hope is not in the
medicine, not in the treatment, not in the professionals, even though all
those things are good and we’re grateful for them. Your hope is in the
Lord, in the God who breathed life into you. He’s the God who makes
blind eyes see. He’s the God who caused a teenage shepherd boy to
defeat a huge giant. He’s the God who took Joseph from the darkness of
the pit to the palace. He’s the God who healed my mother of terminal
cancer. I’m asking you to keep your anchor down. Keep your hope in the
Lord.
When you find yourself being consumed by worry, full of doubt,
thinking it’s never going to work out, recognize what’s happened. You’ve
pulled your anchor up. The good news is that you can put it back down.
Quit dwelling on the negative thoughts: You’ll never get well. You’ll
never get out of debt. You’ll never meet the right person. Turn it around
and say, “Father, I thank You that the answer is on the way. Thank You
that healing is coming, blessing is coming, freedom is coming, favor is
coming, victory is coming.” That’s not just being positive; that’s keeping
your anchor down.
Hope On in Faith
This is what Abraham did. When God gave him a promise that he and his
wife, Sarah, were going to have a baby, she was around seventy-five
years old. It was impossible. It had never happened before. Abraham
could have dismissed it and thought, I must have heard God wrong. I’m
sure his friends said, “Abraham, you’re an old man. Do you really think
Sarah is going to have a baby at her age?” He could have talked himself
out of it, but Scripture says, “All human reason for hope being gone,
Abraham hoped on in faith.” Sometimes there’s no logical reason to have
hope. The medical report said that my mother would never get well. All
the experts said that we’d never get the Compaq Center. Our opponents
were much bigger and had more resources. There may be many reasons
your situation will never work out. But you have to do as Abraham did—
against all hope, hope on in faith. Don’t pull your anchor up; don’t get
talked out of it. God is not limited by the natural. He’s a supernatural
God. Sarah was over ninety years old when she gave birth to a child. The
promise was fulfilled, but they waited for fifteen years or so. It didn’t
happen overnight. There were plenty of times when they were tempted to
think, It’s been too long. It’s never going to happen. We’re too old. If
they would have believed those lies, they would have drifted into doubt
and discouragement and never seen the promise come to pass.
Are you drifting into doubt, worry, and negativity? I’m asking you to
put your anchor down. Get your hopes up. Just because that promise
hasn’t been fulfilled yet doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen. You may
have had some bad breaks like Joseph, but that doesn’t mean you’re not
going to fulfill your destiny. If it weren’t going to work for your good,
God wouldn’t have allowed it. Shake off the self-pity, shake off the
disappointment. What God promised you, He’s still going to bring to
pass.
A young lady I know grew up in our church. She and her husband
wanted to have a baby. They tried and tried and went through all the
fertility treatments, with no success. Year after year went by. When my
father went to be with the Lord and I became pastor, she was the head of
our children’s department. At that time she had already been believing to
have this baby for over twenty years. We were in a meeting about the
children’s ministry, and she made the comment, “I have a good assistant
trained, because when I have my baby, I’m going to be out for a little
while.” I thought I had missed something. Nobody had told me that she
was pregnant. I asked my sister Lisa afterward if this young lady was
going to have a baby. She said, “No, she’s just believing to have one.”
She talked as though the baby were already on the way. She didn’t say,
“If I have a baby”; she said, “When I have my baby.” What was that? She
was anchored to hope.
I thought to myself, being the great man of faith that I am, You’ve
been believing for a baby for twenty years. It’s time to move on. Maybe
God wants to do it another way. Maybe you’re supposed to adopt. Don’t
let other people talk you out of what God put in your heart. Don’t let
them convince you to pull your anchor up. God didn’t put the promise in
them; He put the promise in you. That’s why you can have faith when
others think what you’re believing for is far out. You can believe for it
even though it seems impossible to them. This young lady kept her
anchor down. Twenty-nine years after she started believing for a baby,
she went to the doctor for a checkup. He said, “Congratulations, you’re
pregnant! And not with just one baby—you’re pregnant with twins!”
That’s what Zechariah said: “If you’ll stay anchored to hope, God will
restore double what you lost.” What you’re believing for may be taking a
long time, but what God started He’s going to finish. He doesn’t abort
dreams. Keep your anchor down.
Everyday Life Can Cause You to Drift
When I was a little boy, our family used to go to Galveston. I couldn’t
wait to get in the water and play in the waves. We’d find a place for our
towels and shoes on the beach, then run out and start having fun in the
water. After a couple of hours we were ready to take a break, and when
we looked around for our towels, we realized we were a couple hundred
yards down the beach from where we’d started. We hadn’t known that
that whole time we had been slowly drifting. The Scripture describes
hope as the anchor of our soul. It wouldn’t say “anchor” unless there was
a possibility of drifting. This is what happens in life. If we don’t keep our
anchor down and stay full of hope, then little by little we start drifting,
getting negative and discouraged. “I don’t think I’ll ever have a baby. It’s
been so long.” “I’ll never get well.” “I’ll never meet the right person.”
The problem is that you don’t have your anchor down.
When you’re anchored to hope, you may have negative
circumstances, but you’re not worried because you know that God is
fighting your battles. You may not see how your dream can come to pass,
but you don’t give up. You know that God is behind the scenes arranging
things in your favor. You may have a disappointment, but you don’t get
bitter. You know that weeping may endure for a night, but joy is coming
in the morning. Anchored to hope doesn’t mean you won’t have
difficulties; it means that when those difficulties come, you won’t drift.
Nothing will move you. Sure there will be waves, winds, and changing
tides, but you’re consistent—your hope is in the Lord.
What’s interesting is that when we were at the beach, it wasn’t a big
storm or a hurricane or huge waves that caused us to drift. It was just the
normal movement of the ocean. If you don’t have your anchor down, the
normal currents of life will cause you to drift. To drift does not require a
major sickness, a divorce, or a layoff; just everyday life will do it.
Perhaps you don’t realize it, but you have drifted into a dark place of
doubt. You’re not believing for your dreams anymore. You used to be
excited about your dreams, but it’s been so long that you’ve lost your
passion. Maybe you’ve drifted into bitterness because you had a bad
break, a person did you wrong. You used to be loving and kind, but now
you’re sour, not pleasant to be around. You used to believe that God was
in control, knowing that He was taking care of you, but you pulled up
your anchor and you’ve drifted into worry. Now you feel stressed out all
the time. The good news is that you can get back to where you’re
supposed to be. You can put that anchor of hope down and start believing
again, start expecting His goodness and blessings.
Life is too short for you to go through it drifting, feeling negative,
discouraged, and passionless. Get your hopes back up. If you don’t have
an expectancy in your spirit that something good is coming, it will limit
what God can do. The apostle Paul told Timothy to stir up his gifts. You
have to stir up the hope. If you don’t, you’ll drift into self-pity, worry,
and discouragement. “Well, Joel, if God is good, why haven’t my dreams
come to pass? Why did I have this bad break?” Because you have an
enemy who’s trying to keep you from your destiny. But here’s the key:
the forces that are for you are greater than the forces that are against you.
Don’t let what happens to you, big or small, cause you to pull up your
anchor. If you’ll keep your hope in the Lord, God will get you to where
you’re supposed to be.
Cut Any Anchor of Negativity
This is not just about being positive. Being hopeful is about your soul
being anchored to the right thing, because if you’re not anchored to hope,
over time you’ll become anchored to something else. You can become
anchored to discouragement, where that’s your default setting. You wake
up discouraged and see everything with a tainted perspective. Everything
is sour. It’s because you’re anchored to the wrong thing. I know people
who are anchored to bitterness. They’re so focused on who hurt them and
what wasn’t fair that bitterness has poisoned their whole lives. You can
become anchored to self-pity and go around with a chip on your shoulder,
always thinking about how unfair life has been. I’m not making light of
what’s happened. You may have a good reason to feel that way. I’m
simply saying that being anchored to any of those things is going to keep
you from your destiny. It’s going to cause you to miss your purpose. It’s
time to cut that anchor and come over into hope. God didn’t breathe His
life into you, crown you with favor, and give you a royal robe so you
could go around anchored to doubt, fear, and bitterness. He created you to
be anchored to hope, to go out each day expecting His goodness,
believing that the days ahead are better than the days behind.
When you face difficulties, keep the right perspective. A difficulty is
not there to defeat you; it’s there to promote you. David could have
looked at Goliath and thought, Oh man, I’ll never defeat him. He’s twice
my size. I don’t have a chance. If David had taken up his anchor of hope,
we wouldn’t be talking about him. Goliath wasn’t sent to stop David; he
was sent to promote David. What you’re facing is not meant to hold you
back; it’s meant to push you forward. Instead of being negative and
saying, “God, why is this happening? How is it ever going to work out?”
stay anchored to hope. “God, I don’t see a way, but my hope is in You. I
know that You have it all figured out, and You’ll get me to where I’m
supposed to be.”
The Scripture says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” If you
don’t have hope that the problem is going to turn around, hope that the
dream is going to work out, hope that the new house is in your future, or
hope that your baby is on the way, then your heart, your spirit, is going to
be sick. When you’re not hopeful, positive, and expecting God’s
goodness, something is wrong on the inside. Even physically, when we
feel stressed out and run down, our immune system is weakened. It won’t
fight off disease as it should. For your health’s sake, keep the anchor of
hope down. We all go through seasons in life when things aren’t exciting.
It’s easy to have the blahs and lose our enthusiasm. That’s part of the
normal currents of life. Nobody lives on cloud nine with everything
perfect and exciting every day. Part of the good fight of faith is to stay
hopeful in the dry seasons. When it’s taking a long time, keep a smile on
your face and all through the day say, “Lord, thank You that You have
good things in store.” “Joel, what if I do that and nothing happens?” What
if you do it and something does happen? I’d rather be anchored to hope
than anchored to doubt, worry, and negativity. That’s just going to draw
in defeat.
One time a high school friend invited me to go fishing with him and
his dad. We got in his boat and drove about an hour offshore and fished
most of the morning. When we were finished and ready to come back
home, he asked me to pull the anchor up. I pulled and pulled and couldn’t
get it up. His father came over, and we pulled together, but it would not
budge. My friend cranked up the engine, a big powerful motor, and he
started driving off really slowly, trying to force it to come loose. The
anchor must have been caught under a big tree or rock, because when he
tried to pull away, it pulled the boat backward and we almost tipped over.
He circled the boat around to the other side and tried pulling it a different
way, but the same thing happened. Finally his father got his big knife out
and said, “This is all we can do.” He cut the line. We left the anchor in
the ocean. My friend didn’t like losing his anchor, but the alternative was
to be stuck out in the gulf.
Sometimes we’re anchored to things that don’t come up easily. If
you’ve been anchored to discouragement, anchored to worry, or anchored
to negativity for a long time, you may have to do as my friend’s dad did
and cut the line, so to speak. The enemy doesn’t want you to be free. He
doesn’t want you to be anchored to hope. He wants you to go through life
feeling sour, discouraged, and doubting. It’s time to cut some lines. It’s
time to say, “This is a new day. I’ve been anchored to this junk long
enough. I’m done with the negativity and the bitterness, living
passionlessly and with no expectancy. I’m cutting those lines, and I’m
anchoring myself to hope.” You have to have the right perspective when
dark times linger. That sickness can’t defeat you. That addiction is only
temporary. The right breaks are in your future. You may have had some
disappointments, and life may have dealt you a tough hand, but that
cannot stop your destiny. The odds may be against you, but the Most
High God is for you. When you’re anchored to hope, He’ll show out in
your life in ways you’ve never imagined.
Keep Your Anchor Down
I know a young man named Owen who’s fifteen years old. His family
attends our church. One of his favorite things to do was play basketball.
He was always one of the best players on his team. His dream was to get
a scholarship to play in college. He and his father were watching the 2014
NBA draft on television. There was a standout player from Baylor named
Isaiah Austin who had been projected to go in the first round, but a few
weeks before the draft he’d learned that he had a life-threatening disease
called Marfan syndrome. It’s a genetic disorder that weakens the
connective tissues of the body, with the most serious complications
involving the tissue that holds the heart muscles and blood vessels
together so the body can grow and develop. If it’s not treated, it can
easily be fatal. It’s very dangerous to play high-energy sports if you have
this syndrome. Isaiah Austin was given a ceremonial draft pick that night,
and the commentators gave a lot of descriptive facts about his career-
ending disease.
Owen’s father recognized all the same symptoms in Owen. He took
Owen to the doctor, and he was also diagnosed with Marfan syndrome
and told he could never play basketball again. His body couldn’t support
it. Sometimes life doesn’t seem fair. Owen could have cut the line to his
anchor of hope, given up on his dream, and lived bitter and sour. But
Owen knew that that disappointment wasn’t a surprise to God. His father
said that when Owen was told the diagnosis, he cried for thirty seconds,
but then he said, “Dad, I’m only thirteen. I can still become a coach, or a
referee, or maybe even work for the NBA.” Then Owen decided he
wanted to help other kids like him, so he started having fund-raisers. In
February 2016 he raised $140,000. I said that this young man needed to
come work for us! Owen says, “You can make it your excuse, or you can
make it your purpose.”
Recently Owen had to have open heart surgery, a very serious
procedure, to fix valves in his heart that were much too large. If they kept
growing, they would burst like a balloon and cause instant death. One of
the best surgeons for Marfan syndrome in the world lives here in Houston
and operated on him. One day after the surgery, Owen was out of
intensive care, and one week later, he left the hospital. One month later,
he was back at church.
Friend, a bad break, a disappointment, a divorce, or a sickness can’t
stop you. When life throws you a curve, don’t pull up your anchor. Do as
Owen has done and keep hoping on in faith. You haven’t seen your best
days. God has you in the palms of His hands. It may have been meant for
your harm, but He’s going to use it for your good. If you’ll stay anchored
to hope, what is now your test will soon become your testimony. Like
Owen, you will rise above every challenge, defeat every enemy, and
become everything God created you to be.
BLESSED IN THE DARKNESS 