Pain catches us off guard. We can never truly prepare for it. Its unexpectedness sifts our hearts, unearthing our true beliefs—about ourselves, others, the world, and God.
“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pain. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” C. S. Lewis
God has roused me in my current pain, and I’ve discovered, like never before, the great measures He takes to reveal the faithfulness of His love. This love is the root of His sovereignty. He knows every one of our days before one of them came to be. Therefore, this promise is trustworthy:
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you (Isaiah 43:2 ESV).”
He sees the waters ahead. He sees the fire. Yet, He doesn’t redirect us. He walks through them with us.
At the beginning of 2022, I received an invitation to speak in mid-April at Ever After, a Jesus-centered event for middle school girls, with the theme of, “What is your anchor in the storm?” My heart leaped at the opportunity to share with young girls how Jesus is our best and one true choice as an anchor in the storm.
Two weeks before the event, however, I was caught off guard. But God wasn’t. I felt unprepared for the dark and disorienting storm of my husband’s passing. Except I wasn’t.
I couldn’t fulfill my speaking obligation, but the promises and truths I’d gathered for those teenage girls became my anchor. God had given me an acronym that proved trustworthy. As the storm raged inside me and all around me, Jesus, my ANCHOR, was sure and steadfast. His strength sustained me day after day because Jesus is:
Always and
Never, a
Close
Help, and the
One who knows the
Real me… and loves me!
In the coming weeks, I’ll share three blog posts elaborating on this acronym and the truth of this Scripture:
This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast, and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 6:19-20 NASB).
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