My church has two services on Sunday morning. Because I’m involved with music at the beginning and end of each service, sometimes I’ll stay in the sanctuary for the sermon both times it’s preached. Some real advantages to this. If you’re like me, sometimes you’ll “zone” during the sermon and miss something . . . but because you “zoned” you don’t know you missed it. Sitting in on the message a second time affords the Spirit another opportunity to apply the preached word to the heart. Such was the case for me yesterday . . . I picked up something (or the Spirit put something on my radar) during the second service that I had missed during the first.

The preacher gave a simple definition for hope . . . I’m guessing he provided it in both services . . . but I only caught in the second . . . and it stuck. “Hope,” he said, “is the confident expectation that God will fulfill His promises.” Maybe not too new a thought . . . but, how true! I was struck afresh with how profound our hope is. The believer’s hope is not some “pie in the sky, by and by” fanciful thinking. It’s not “wishing upon a star” . . . desiring, by chance, for something to maybe occur. It is, as the preacher said yesterday, confident expectation. And, as I read in Hebrews 6 this morning, thus it is an anchor for the soul.

“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever.” (Hebrews 6:19-20a)

God has made a promise. A promise that the blood of Jesus is sufficient to cleanse from all sin. A promise that the sacrifice of His Son is the once-for-all atonement for all transgression. A promise that, for as many as receive Him, to them He gives the right to become children of God (John 1:12). A promise that salvation is the start of “all things new” . . . that we are born again . . . that we are infused with the Living Holy Spirit of God . . . that through His word there is a renewing of the mind and a transforming of the person and a conforming to the image of Christ. A promise that one day we will be with Him. And our hope is that confident expectation that what God has promised, He will fulfill. That is the anchor of my soul.

I was reminded this morning that, as a child of God, I am an heir of promise . . . and that God’s counsel is immutable, unchanging, unalterable . . . that it is impossible for God to get it wrong by the very nature of who God is . . . and, that in the promise, and the surety of the Promiser, we have strong consolation as we lay hold of the hope set before us (Heb. 6:17-18). That hope we lay hold of is an anchor for the soul.

Oh, the picture painted, and the encouragement given, by the image of an anchor It’s the lifeline that allows a ship to ride out a storm or tempest. A solid anchor . . . engaged with solid ground . . . attached by a strong line . . . and no matter how upside down the conditions get, the ship can ride it out and know that one day it will put down that anchor in safe harbor.

The believer’s hope is such an anchor. And the solid ground which receives that anchor is that ground behind the veil . . . the Holy of Holies . . . the very presence of Almighty God. And the strong line? That’s Jesus Himself . . . the “forerunner” who has entered for us . . . leading the way . . . preparing our place . . . interceding on our behalf before the throne of God. The promises of God . . . our hope . . . secure on holy ground . . . fastened through the living Christ within us.

Fanciful thinking? Wistful desire? Dreaming upon a star? Nope! It is the immutable word of the God of promise who cannot lie. It is the believer’s reality. It is my confident expectation. It is the anchor of my soul. Praise God!