The anchor of our hope

By Jon Walker

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4)

Discipleship — God tells us in the Book of James that we can count it all joy when we go through trials and tribulations.

He isn’t saying we have to be happy when we suffer a loss. Rather, we can be confident that a just and loving and merciful Father is working everything out for the good of his perfect will (Romans 8:28) – and we can rejoice because God uses moments of crisis to reveal where we have anchored our hope.

Have you anchored your hope in your circumstances? Or have you anchored your hope “on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness”?

Several years ago my daughter, Kathryn, died. And, to be perfectly honest, my wife and I became angry with God. We’d asked him to save Kathryn, and he didn’t answer our prayer.

But slowly we began listening to God, and gently … very gently … he taught us that our perspective was extraordinarily narrow. We’d placed our hope in our answer to prayer, insisting we knew best what should happen. We did not trust that God knew what he was doing, that with his Father’s heart he had figured it all out, making plans to take care of us and Kathryn, plans to give us the future we actually hoped for in the depths of our hearts. (Jeremiah 29:11 MSG)

We’d hung our hopes on the wrong hook, forgetting our Creator is a God of hope, and that his hope will not disappoint. (Romans 5:1-5)

This is the Truth we can cling to no matter what our circumstances. We can trust in God’s character, even when we can’t see his hand at work. We can trust in God’s plans for us, knowing that he goes before and comes behind. We can trust that God is always in control and that he is bigger than our circumstances.

If our God is not God in times of trouble, then he isn’t God at all.

The Apostle Paul told us that, because we have this tremendous hope inside, we need not grieve our losses like those who have no hope. He’s not saying we can’t or shouldn’t grieve at all; rather, he’s saying that death or any other loss is not the end of the story because we serve the God of Glory.

We believe Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe God will resurrect those in Christ who’ve been taken from us. And we can encourage one another with these words of hope. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

• Let God be God – God is working out the details of your life. Even the darkness is light to him, and he can take even bad situations and redeem them for his holy purposes.

• His hands hold your future – Where have you hung your hope? Is it in a job, a relationship, a dream home, a wishful chance to make a better choice in the past? Tell God you’re giving your circumstances and regrets to him, that you’re placing all your hope in his hands.

• Look above – “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (Colossians 3:2) Look to God and not at your circumstances.

• Change what you do – How would you handle a situation differently if you were 100% sure that God was working the details out, according to his eternal plan and based on his love for you? “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see ….” (Hebrews 11:1)