We Are No Strangers to Storms

The wind was howling. Its strength visible by the leaning of the trees along the coast of the Indian Ocean. Storms here come in such varieties. Some park over the sea and churn buckets of water on the earth below reshaping large rivers and beaches overnight. Some have gusts that shake the very foundations of the earth, twisting infrastructure and edifice alike. And some have all of the above.

How do you feel in a storm? Do you remember cosy times cuddled by a fireplace reading and not worrying an iota? Perhaps you have a different recollection of a storm that wreaked havoc on your life and took precious things from you?

Rescue workers go on high alert during such storms. They have been trained to know what are the first and foremost things to get accomplished. They have tools and equipment that are essential, and tough vehicles that can chew their way through the rubble and high waters to get into ravaged places to rescue the perishing. So thankful for these people.

How wise is the person that prepares ahead of the storm so that when it hits, he is ready. This is true when you are at sea perhaps more than any other place. Whereas the ground tends to be firm, and can even be burrowed into for safety, the sea can be a merciless place that tosses you about for days and even weeks without a break.

Almost the very definition of hopelessness is someone adrift at sea in a horrible storm with no motor, no sails, no oars, and no anchor.

Anchored

Maybe you feel that a storm is raging inside you. Outside, you may appear just fine to others. But in your thoughts and emotions, you are in a horrible storm battling the foreboding winds of change, loss, challenge, or uncertainty. Dark clouds on the horizon vow that even more is coming. Alone, your tears fall like heavy rain. Your thoughts spin and lurch like a rudderless ship with the sails all torn. Hope seems like a bad joke. You don’t know what to think or do next. I know. I have been there, too.

Emotions are real, but they are not reality. When we are in a storm, we must send our minds down beyond our circumstances, down to a deeper reality … and give our emotions a bit of time to follow. You see, we have an anchor. Our minds have a chain of truths that go down deep and are connected to an anchor set firmly into a Rock that does not move. We are connected. We are held. We belong. We are tethered in the storm by the Author and Measurer of the storm. The storm teaches us the power of the Rock and underscores the need for a good anchor that can hold us fast in the dreadful waves that throw our souls back and forth. ⚓️

“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

Go from Anxious to A.N.C.H.O.R.E.D.

I came across a helpful tool recently. It gives a simple reminder to the person who is the midst of a storm of anxiety, but desires to gradually leave that state and feel anchored.

A — Acknowledge God’s Sovereign Presence — Psalm 23:4; Psalm 139:1-12; Joshua 1:9; Isaiah 41:10,13; Psalm 46:1

N — Name the Fears and Lies Beneath the Anxiety — Psalm 139:23-24; Psalm 19:14; Lamentations 3:40

C — Confess Unbelief and Self-Dependence — I John 1:9; Psalm 32:5; Psalm 51:10; Proverbs 28:13

H — Hold Fast to God’s Promises in Christ — Proverbs 3:5; Isaiah 26:3; Hebrews 10:23

O — Orient Your Mind to Scripture — Lamentations 3:21; Psalm 119:11; Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:2

R — Redirect Desires Toward God’s Kingdom — Colossians 3:1-2; Matthew 6:33; Psalm 37:4

E — Entrust Cares to God Through Thankful Prayer — Philippians 4:6; Psalm 37:3,5; I Peter 5:7; I Thessalonians 5:16-18; Psalm 28:7; Colossians 4:2

D — Do the Next Faithful Step — Psalm 37:23; Proverbs 3:6; Micah 6:8; Philippians 3:13-14; Proverbs 4:25-27

@Biblical Counselors Society

Are You Anchored?

You may think you are anchored, but when a raging storm threatens your tranquility, your anxieties become apparent. Perhaps your anchor and chain of truths are not sufficiently strong. Perhaps they are not set into the Rock but are unhelpfully dragging along the bottom. You are being thrown and tossed, bruised and broken.

The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place, and life in it a disappointing and unpleasant business, for those who do not know about God. Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you.”

J. I. Packer,

Knowing God

The world experiences peace circumstantial, but the Christian’s peace is not anchored in happenstance or circumstance but in the character of our Heavenly Father.”

Jonny Ardavanis, Consider the Lilies

“Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.”

2 Thessalonians 3:16

I want to end by encouraging you to write out the acronym for A.N.C.H.O.R.E.D. and look up the verses that support it. It will be a step of establishing a secured anchoring in TRUTH.

Christ The Sure And Steady Anchor

Christ the sure and steady anchor in the fury of the storm
When the winds of doubt blow through me and my sails have all been torn
In the suffering, in the sorrow when my sinking hopes are few
I will hold fast to the anchor, it shall never be removed

Christ the sure and steady anchor while the tempest rages on
When temptation claims the battle and it seems the night has won
Deeper still then goes the anchor though I justly stand accused
I will hold fast to the anchor, it shall never be removed

Christ the sure and steady anchor through the floods of unbelief
Hopeless, somehow, o my soul now lift your eyes to calvary
This my ballast of assurance see His love forever proved
I will hold fast to the anchor, it shall never be removed

Christ the sure and steady anchor as we face the wave of death
When these trials give way to glory and we draw our final breath
We will cross that great horizon, clouds behind and life secured
And the calm will be the better, for the storms that we endured
Christ the shore of our salvation, ever faithful, ever true
We will hold fast to the anchor, it shall never be removed

Matt Papa