This is the conclusion of Barbara’s article “Anchors in the Storm of life. If you haven’t a chance to read part 1, you can find it here, Anchors in the Storm of Life (Part 1)
Anchor 5: The deepest darkness cannot overwhelm the Presence, peace, or the love of God.
Verse 5 of Psalm 23:
“You become my delicious feast even when my enemies dare to fight. You anoint me with the fragrance of your Holy Spirit; you give me all I can drink of you until my heart overflows.”
John the Baptist said to those gathered to hear his message of repentance, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the HolySpirit and fire.” (Luke 3:16) Jesus is not only our Savior, but the Baptizer of power that the enemy cannot withstand.
Paul said to the Corinthian Church that the Holy Spirit in us is to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. (2 Corinthians 2:15)
Isaiah speaks for the Lord: “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’(Isaiah 41:10)
Anchor 6: He anoints and empowers me, and surrounds me with His comforting, strengthening, and overwhelming Presence.
Verse 6 of Psalm 23
“So why would I fear the future? For your goodness and love pursue me all the days of my life.
Then afterward, when my life is through, I’ll return to your glorious presence to be forever with you!”
Isaiah prophesies to us:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. 3 For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” (Isaiah 43:1-3)
Psalm 136 is a psalm of thanksgiving to God for His enduring mercy. It begins with:
“Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”
The Apostle John tells us of God’s unfathomable love: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
Anchor 7: My future is safe and secure in His goodness and love – and I will be with Him forever!
In summary, as we embrace these ANCHORS of FAITH we will find stability through the storms of life:
1- Our God is a God of Safety and ABUNDANCE! – With Jesus as my friend and shepherd I will always be safe in his arms and have what I need; even more than enough!
2 – God offers me a quiet place of peace and rest in Him at all times, for His Presence restores and revives my life. Do I go there often to commune with Him?
3 – God’s pathways bring pleasure and joy, and His Word lights my path with revelation. He leads me on a path of righteousness so I can bring Him praise and honor
4 – I am empowered by God to endure and prosper in every temptation and trial of life, and to navigate through the deepest darkness.
5 – The deepest darkness cannot overwhelm the Presence, peace, or the love of God.
6 – He anoints and empowers me, and surrounds me with His comforting, strengthening, and overwhelming Presence.
7 – My future is safe and secure in His goodness and love – and I will be with Him forever!
We are living in a time that we have not seen or experienced before…. Within the span of only a few weeks the whole world was thrust into a Pandemic of disease, fear, and economic chaos. Prophetic words have suggested an unsettling scenario: re calibration – reset- upheaval – never the same again!
What should be our response to these things?
I would like to suggest 7 anchors of peace and hope to hold on to, gleaned from the 23rd Psalm in The Passion Bible.
The Lord is my best friend and my shepherd I always have more than enough. 2 He offers a resting place for me in his luxurious love. His tracks take me to an oasis of peace, the quiet brook of bliss. 3 That’s where he restores and revives my life. He opens before me pathways to God’s pleasure and leads me along in his footsteps of righteousness so that I can bring honor to his name. 4 Lord, even when your path takes me through the valley of deepest darkness, fear will never conquer me, for you already have! You remain close to me and lead me through it all the way. Your authority is my strength and my peace] The comfort of your love takes away my fear. I’ll never be lonely, for you are near. 5 You become my delicious feast even when my enemies dare to fight. You anoint me with the fragrance of your Holy Spirit; you give me all I can drink of you until my heart overflows. 6 So why would I fear the future? For your goodness and love pursue me all the days of my life. Then afterward, when my life is through, I’ll return to your glorious presence to be forever with you!
Verse 1: “The Lord is my best friend and my shepherd…”
This brings to mind the old hymn:
What a Friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer!
Indeed, Jesus is our friend, and He invites us to share our every thought, fear and need with Him.
Psalm 95 says:
O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
The best friend a sheep has is the SHEPHERD. Jesus identifies Himself twice in the gospel of John as the Good Shepherd who “gives His life for the sheep.” And Jesus taught in the parable of the lost sheep in Matthew 18:12-13:
“If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.
Our Good Shepherd is very intentional about guiding us and keeping us from getting lost and falling into the pit falls of life.
“…. I always have more than enough.”
In John 10:10, Jesus said He came to give us ABUNDANT LIFE:
“I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect—life in its fullness until you overflow!” (The Passion Bible)
In Philippians 4:19, Paul exhorts us:
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Anchor 1: Our God is a God of Safety and ABUNDANCE! – With Jesus as my friend and shepherd I will always be safe in his arms and have what I need; even more than enough!
Verse 2 in Psalm 23:
“He offers a resting place for me in his luxurious love. His tracks take me to an oasis of peace, the quiet brook of bliss. That’s where he restores and revives my life.”
This is reminiscent of the words of Jesus in John 16:33: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Then Jesus assured us with these words in John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
One of the Names of Jesus is Jehovah Shalom – Jesus IS PEACE! And Jesus lives inside of us and fills us with His Peace! And He invites us to come and abide in Him, the Prince of Peace… (John 15:4-7; Isaiah 9:6)
Anchor 2: God offers me a quiet place of peace and rest in Him at all times, for His Presence restores and revives my life. Do I go there often to commune with Him?
Verse 3 of Psalm 23:
“He opens before me pathways to God’s pleasure and leads me along in his footsteps of righteousness so that I can bring honor to his name.”
David spoke of pathways in Psalm 16:11: “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand arepleasures forevermore.”
The Psalmist in Psalm 119:105 described the Word of God as a lamp that shines to lighten our path: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
And Psalm 118:19 speaks of pathways leading to righteousness:
Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go through them, AndI will praise the Lord.
Anchor 3: God’s pathways bring pleasure and joy, and His Word lights my path with revelation. He leads me on a path of righteousness so I can bring Him praise and honor.
Verse 4a of Psalm 23:
“Lord, even when your path takes me through the valley of deepest darkness, fear will never conquer me, for you already have!”
Paul admonished Timothy that “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” ( 2 Timothy 1:7) Fear is not a part of who we are in Christ. Instead, Paul said in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” There is nothing I will face that will be too difficult for me – for if God is for me, who can be against me? (Romans 8:31)
In fact, we must see testings and trials as gifts to help us learn to overcome…James said, “My fellow believers, when it seems as though you are facing nothing but difficulties see it as an invaluable opportunity to experience the greatest joy that you can! For you know that when your faith is tested it stirs up power within you to endure all things.” (James 1:2-3, The Passion Bible)
Anchor 4: I am empowered by God to endure and prosper in every temptation and trial of life, and to navigate through the deepest darkness.
Verse 4b of Psalm 23:
“You remain close to me and lead me through it all the way. Your authority is my strength and my peace. The comfort of your love takes away my fear. I’ll never be lonely, for you are near.”
Romans 8:35-39 is perhaps the greatest passage on the power of God’s love to keep and to save. Paul’s beautiful words resonate across the millennia:
“What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?…Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The prophet Isaiah penned these words on the keeping power of God in Isaiah 26:3-:
“You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. 4 Trust in the Lord forever, For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength.”
“Now is the time for My mighty warriors to arise in these times of uncertainty. For I will make that which is uncertain, certain. My Word stands firm and is the plumb line upon which you are to align your life. My word is the sure foundation upon which you can stand. It is only upon the Rock of My Word and the words that I speak to your heart that you will walk out in the days ahead.
Even as Peter stepped out of the boat at My Word…even while the waves and the storm was raging, his eyes were upon Me. Even when he began to look at the turbulent waves and began to sink, even then, I reached out to save, so it is today. I reach out My hand to those of you who feel that nothing in your life is secure…when you feel that you are sinking. I say I am reaching out to you to lift you above the storms that are raging around you in this world.
Lift up your eyes and reach out to Me as Peter, for I am the only One who has all power to deliver and to save. I am the Prince of Peace. I am the Way Maker when there seems to be no way. Invite Me into your storm. I am the Mighty Warrior who fights for you!”
Whirlwind of Hope 