Our Anchor

Today was one of the few days that I didn’t have scripture verses or Biblical/life topics on my mind when I got settled at my desk in my study first thing this morning.  I usually have a pre-set sense of direction that I’ll follow as I begin my daily Bible Study time.  It is one of my favorite times of the day.  The house is usually quiet and cool as I turn up the thermostat.  The outside is a mirror of the inside and many times is still fairly dark as I open the front blinds that face our cul-de-sac and afford a pleasant view of the city golf course just a few steps away.

I had gotten up earlier than normal today as I needed to go to a local lab and have a blood panel drawn for my yearly physical later this week.  I had been fasting and wanted to get the task done early so I could get back to my normal morning routine of coffee and breakfast.  But I have been doing it for so long now, that I can’t fathom the thought of starting my day without some private time with my heavenly Father!  After all the miraculous things that He did for Piper and I during the years of her final journey on this earth, I can’t help but want to give Him the first and best part of my day!

So, after I turned on my laptop and loaded my Bible Study program, I did what I normally do at times of impasse like today and went back to the last portion of scripture that I studied from yesterday.  I flipped over to my notes and read from Psalm 100:4,

“You can pass through His open gates with the password of praise. Come right into His presence with thanksgiving. Come bring your thank offering to Him and affectionately bless His beautiful name!”  (TPT)

Then I automatically looked up to the screen on my laptop and continued reading the next verse, Psalm 100:5 where the Psalmist concluded saying,

“For the Lord is always good and ready to receive you. He’s so loving that it will amaze you—so kind that it will astound you! And He is famous for his faithfulness toward all. Everyone knows our God can be trusted, for He keeps His promises to every generation!” (TPT)

By then I was hooked and found myself contemplating the LOVE of God towards you and me that is simply AMAZING and ASTOUNDING!  I also realized that I had a big smile on my face as I thought those things over.  Then I cast my eyes down to the last sentence in the verse and nodded my head with personal experiential agreement that the Lord indeed “keeps His promises to every generation!”

Allow me to interject a question here… “Do you REALLY BELIEVE that statement?”  Have you also repeatedly seen the Lord’s faithfulness in your life like I have?  I discovered first-hand with all the different folks that we interacted with in three different states, with both believers and non-believers during Piper’s illness, that most people want to believe it… and may even go so far as to say that they DO BELIEVE it… but when the line was drawn in the sand… they crossed over to unbelief because they believed it in their head BUT NOT in their hearts!

I thought that going through Piper’s final journey with all its challenges, witnessing the physical destruction of my beautiful wife’s mind and body along with all the added outside pressures that I never imagined… would be the most difficult time of my life… But as I’ve mentioned before… in many respects, being without her is even harder! 

But through it all… the most comforting words I have repeatedly heard is the question of the Lord coming from deep inside… asking me… “Do you BELIEVE My Word or NOT?”  And that little jolt to spiritual reality helps me to reset my faith and simply say: “YES!”

When Piper was first diagnosed, she and I immediately agreed that God’s Word and His WAY was the ONLY answer for us… and I still hold true to that declaration of faith today… I just need to be reminded of it occasionally!

A footnote of commentary by the late-great English Minister C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) that I read concerning that concluding proclamation by David in Psalm 100:5, brought it all home for me… and I’ll share it with you.  Speaking of our heavenly Father, Spurgeon wrote:

“No fickle being is He, promising and forgetting. He has entered into covenant with His people, and He will never revoke it, nor alter the thing that has gone out of His lips. As our fathers found Him faithful, so will our sons, and their seed forever. A changeable God would be a terror to the righteous, they would have no sure anchorage, and amid a changing world they would be driven to and fro in perpetual fear of shipwreck.”*                                

That is why I believe… because God is FAITHFUL to us, to His Word and to Our faith in Him.  I have come to DEPEND on the sure anchorage of the promises He has made to us in His Word. 

How about you?  How steady is your Anchor?

Have a great week, and as you do… Keep EXPECTING God’s best in your life!

 

*Treasury of David – notes on Psalm 100- by C.H. Spurgeon