Hope in Jesus Is the Anchor for My Soul

By Hess

The late Dr. Lewis Smedes wrote: 

“Hope is to our spirits what oxygen is to our lungs. Lose hope and you die.”

But what exactly IS hope? Even secular psychologists will tell you that you need hope. However, they will also tell you to look for that hope within yourself. 

But if the object of hope has to be found within ourselves, no wonder there is so much hopelessness in our world. No wonder mental health is the biggest health problem in the world right now, second only to the coronavirus. So, hope that must be found in ourselves… is no hope at all. 

The object of our hope as Christians is Jesus Christ! The writer of Hebrews describes our hope this way: Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. Jesus has already gone in there for us (Hebrews 6:18-20 NLT). That last part sounds a bit strange to our ears, but it’s simply saying that by his death, Jesus opened the way for us to a daily, personal relationship with God! (That’s why 1 Peter calls it a “living” hope.) 

We have hope in life because Jesus made it possible for us to have a relationship with him where he is always present, and we have hope in death because then we get to be present with him forever! That’s why the Bible says Christ-followers do not grieve like those who have no hope. We DO have hope… in life AND in death… in and through Jesus Christ! 

This is why Celebrate Recovery is such a powerful hope-giving tool… it is centered upon the only worthy object of our hope—the Lord Jesus Christ! It is based upon hope only found in the person of Jesus Christ, his life and teachings, and his death and resurrection. 

And hope in Christ is much more than an expectation. It is a present realization! As we just read, it is truly a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. 

Think about it, what happens to your life when you have no anchor? Without an anchor, you easily end up drifting into troubling waters; adrift in anxiety, fear, despair, anger, resentment, and bitterness; adrift in hopelessness! But even in the worst storms of life, hope in Christ is the anchor of your soul that will keep you from drifting! This is because the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ lives within us, loves and strengthens us, and gives us his peace. This hope—our hope in Christ—is the only anchor that always holds! 

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13 NIV).

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If you would like to learn how to start your own Celebrate Recovery ministry, to contact your Celebrate Recovery Rep, please visit: https://crgroups.info/. To get involved in an already existing Celebrate Recovery ministry near you, please visit: https://locator.crgroups.info/.