Stay Anchored

The question often comes up of how to keep the faith during trials and tests. How are we supposed to continue to believe in God in the face of things like sickness sadness and disappointment? How do we maintain the conviction that God is faithful and good no matter what we are going through? This is indeed one of the biggest challenges of life. Let’s first dispel some common myths.

Myth #1: when you’re a Christian life is smooth sailing. Bad things shouldn’t happen to you. Unfortunately this is a very common untrue belief. Jesus himself said in this world we would have trouble, but we could find peace in him, and rest in the confidence that he has overcome the world for us.

Myth #2: if something bad is happening then I’ve done something wrong. We see in the story of Job one minute his friends showed up to support and encourage him during his crisis, but shortly there after they were telling him that he had to have done something wrong, or committed some kind of sin to cause such tragedy upon himself (Their compassion went out the window quick lol). As we know from the story, Job was hand selected for his test particularly because he was a righteous man. We saw in the end that he received double blessings for his trouble! The truth is, it is entirely possible to be right in the will of God and still experience challenges.

Now that we cleared up those common errors let’s look at the best ways to maintain our ground and keep the faith. Simply put, you have to be anchored in order to stay in faith in the midst of challenges. According to Webster’s dictionary an anchor is a reliable support. God is reliable, his word is reliable, and he is consistent. The essence of believing and experiencing this truth comes as a result of the time we take to develop a meaningful intimate relationship with him. We can’t rely on something that we don’t know or understand. The more time we spend in the presence of God the better we get to know him, and the more familiar his ways and his voice become to us. We have to shift from only calling on God in emergencies, to seeking him daily through prayer, worship and reading the word. The more we have personal encounters with God, the more we will trust him, and the deeper we will grow in him.

Affirm It