The Anchor we don't want but need - by Elizabeth Reynolds

I have just finished reading the Psalms in my cover-to-cover Bible read-through – and what a rollercoaster!

As I finish each book of the Bible, I read about that book in Dr. Larry Crabb’s 66 Love Letters to look at his take on what the message of each book or love letter from God is. Crabb takes a few liberties in writing what he believes the voice of God is saying and writes some text as though it is God speaking. According to Crabb, in the book of Psalms, God is saying:

Face the hard questions that life requires you to ask. Gather with other travellers on the narrow road, pilgrims who acknowledge their confusion and feel their fears. Then, together, live those questions in my presence.

Or more simply put: ASK YOUR HARDEST QUESTIONS AND SING YOUR LOUDEST PRAISE.

One concept he focussed on was the struggles we go through and our desire for emotional stability and to feel solid and secure in these struggles. Sometimes we assume that God will relieve struggles and replace it with rest. But rather, He uses struggles to “uncover a rest beneath the struggle that no anguish can destroy.”

It is only in the storm, that we will know there is an anchor.

But what we really want (if we’re honest) is a quick trip to shore, not an anchor. As hard as this is to grapple with, at the same time I think – where’s the adventure in that?

Now, I don’t know what’s to come. And I know that real life struggles are awful and when we have them, it doesn’t feel like an adventure. It feels like something we want to escape from as soon as possible and would never wish on anyone. But we must hold on to the promise, that God will carry us through it, and that unimaginable blessings, spiritual growth, strength, healing or intimacy with God (or all of the above) will follow afterwards, if we trust Him and stay close to Him.

by Elizabeth Reynolds