This past week, my family and I went to Hilton Head Island, and while on a Dolphin Cruise, they showed us a sailboat that had sank in the backwater. All we saw was two masts sticking out of the water. The tour director said that the owner anchored the boat and left but the anchor did not hold. The boat was swamped, and it sank. The anchor was good, but it was not attached to a rock.

As we sailed past and heard the story, Hebrews 6:19 came to mind. “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.” The anchor is hope and it is based on the fact that God cannot lie. When God promised Abraham the promised land, Abraham asked how he could know that He would in fact would receive the land. Genesis 15 records the covenant making ceremony that God entered into with Abraham. In the ceremony, animals were split in two, and the one making the covenant would walk between the pieces of animal. In doing so, the person was saying, if I fail to keep the promise may I be cut in two like the pieces. God was saying, may I not be God if I fail to keep my promise.

Our anchor of hope is sure because it is built on the fact that God will never fail to keep his promise to us. Not only that our anchor is attached to the rock, which is in heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because our hope is built on the promise of God and is attached to Jesus Christ, we are secure no matter what storm we face. This led the hymn writer, William Bradbury, to write: