“We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain.” – Hebrews 6:19

Our circumstances, situations, fortunes, and moods can quickly shift from day to day and moment to moment. We can swiftly move from the highest of heights to the deepest depths of the soul. Things we thought would never fail us can indeed betray us. As our world is shaken and tossed to and fro, we can easily be overwhelmed by it all. Our storm-tossed world changes around us daily and the pace of that change only seems to be accelerating. How do we survive this? How can we thrive in this?

By recognizing and holding firm to the one sure, steadfast, unchanging anchor available to our souls: Jesus Christ! Our Lord and Savior is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Lamb Who was slain for our sins rose from the dead and reigns in heaven while living within each of His followers. Jesus is our great high priest Who entered the holiest place behind the curtain to intercede for us. He is our hope Who will never fail us, our guarantee of God’s love and eternal life.

A casual commitment to Christ won’t hold you steady when the storms come. Ships with a casual commitment to their anchor eventually float away on the waves. Likewise with Jesus when life gets hard. Simply liking Jesus won’t provide the steadfast anchoring for your soul that’s able to withstand the hurricanes, floods, and tides of this crazy world. You must fully embrace Jesus.

Jesus can’t just be your friend, He must be your Lord, with authority over every aspect of your life. It’s then that He can stabilize your soul in an unstable world. It isn’t enough to visit Jesus on Sundays – that won’t anchor your soul. We’re called to deny ourselves, take up our crosses each day, and truly follow Him. We’re to imitate Him. We’re to do what He did, care about what He cared out, and think like Him – all by the power of His Spirit within us. It’s only by grabbing firmly ahold of Jesus and committing fully that we find the stable, steady, sure, steadfast anchor our soul desperately needs.

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” – Hebrews 5:12-14

Surely this isn’t true of you! Nonetheless, it’s a helpful reminder that for every follower of Jesus, there’s an expectation to engage the mind and grow in the knowledge and understanding of the faith, the Bible, and the doctrines we believe. Not every Christian will excel or enjoy such studies equally, but every Christian can and should engage their mind throughout their entire life learn ever more about what the Bible teaches and Christ commands.

We aren’t merely called to love God with all our heart and soul. We’re also called to love Him with all our mind. Christianity is meant to be a thoughtful, intelligent, and discerning faith. Emotion and experience are wonderful, but so is learning and knowledge. That means we should not only be interested in asking hard questions, but in doing the hard work to read, study, and understand the answers that have been articulated across twenty centuries.

Too many Christians are content to let leaders and teachers do all the thinking and studying. That isn’t how it’s supposed to be! Every Christian is called to learn continuously and become more discerning between good and evil. This is particularly important in our topsy-turvy world that increasingly confuses and reverses them.

You may be correct that you aren’t a scholar, but that doesn’t mean Jesus doesn’t expect you to engage your mind, study your Bible, and participate in every learning opportunity you can!

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” – Hebrews 4:15

It’s common when we’re going through hard times and hard temptations to think that nobody could ever possibly understand. Scripture says that isn’t true! There’s at least One who understands your weakness, your suffering, your temptation, your struggle…Jesus!

When God became flesh, Jesus personally came to know hardship and hunger, temptation and suffering, rejection and betrayal, humiliation and pain. He can sympathize with loneliness and isolation, sickness and grief, agony and death. Jesus understands!

Jesus understands what you’re going through. He understands your temptations and your trials. Moreover, He endured all things without sinning, not even once. Because He did, He was also able to endure the unfathomable wrath of God on our behalf, so that we don’t have to. Jesus understands us, but also demonstrates the power to rise above all those things we struggle with.

When we believe in Him, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us and give us His power to resist temptation, to rise above circumstance, and to glorify and serve God amidst suffering. Jesus understands and empowers us to become more like Him in our weakness. He understands, He sympathizes, and He empowers us to change in a way that transcends human frailty. Do you believe?

“I will restore to you the years
that the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
my great army, which I sent among you.”
– Joel 2:25

If you’ve endured long seasons of loss, grief, sorrow, and devastation, know that in Christ, God can provide peace, healing, and restoration that surpasses all understanding! God can bring miraculous healing to every hurt and restoration to every devastation. No, God won’t change your past (though He may well change your perspective on the agonies of the past). Nonetheless, God absolutely can and will change your future forever!

Through a rich and reconciled relationship with your Father in Heaven, God will fill your heart with peace, joy, satisfaction, purpose, and pleasure that transcends every earthly circumstance and lasts forever! Eternal life in Jesus Christ begins the moment you first believe in Him. From that moment onward, God invites you into the joyful and challenging adventure of following Jesus. It’s in that adventure that healing and restoration occur

Yes, this adventure brings change (to everyone on it) and no, it isn’t easy, stress-free, or guaranteed to bring pleasant circumstances on earth. However, the adventure of really pursuing an ever-deepening relationship with Christ produces a lasting joy that cannot be described! Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Indeed He did!

Jesus Christ is the source of abundant life and that life, which we’ll enjoy in His presence forever and ever is meant to be experienced and enjoyed today, tomorrow, and every day regardless of situation or circumstance. Such joy doesn’t come from what surrounds you, but from living in the loving embrace, leadership, and fellowship of Christ!

“But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” – Hebrews 3:13

As Christians, we’re called to get personal with one another. Real personal! We’re to be involved with and encouraging fellow believers toward Christ every single day. When we see a brother or sister in Christ falling into a particular sin, regardless of whether we or they think it’s big deal, we need to strongly encourage them to reject that pattern of sin.

The writer of Hebrews understands the tricky nature of sin. Whether it’s addiction, anger, sexual sin, greed, covetousness, violence, obscene talk, gossip, etc the pattern tends to be similar. Sin begins worming its way into our hearts and minds. At first we may not even it see it! When we do, we make little excuses about how it isn’t a big deal… how it doesn’t really hurt anyone… how it’s justified by our situation or circumstance…

Over time, our self-deceptive rationalization hardens into obstinacy and willful blindness. We refuse to see sin as sin and refuse to see it’s harm to ourselves and others. We insist that we need the sin or at least deserve it. We fight to keep it, including with those trying to help us.

The longer we wait to exhort one another away from sin, the harder it becomes to do so. This is the great value of lives lived close enough together and with enough honesty to be able to encourage and exhort one another daily away from sin and toward godliness. When we live such lives, we can begin to intercede in word and prayer when change is easiest and most painless. But first, we need to intentionally get that close to other believers. Are you?