5 Days From Resilient Hope by Christine CaineChikamu

DROP ANCHOR ONCE MORE

Friendships are important to me. I love making new friends and I hardly ever meet a stranger. Looking back over the years, one of the benefits of doing what I do for as long as I have, is meeting so many different types of people all over the world. Consequently, I have made lots of wonderful friends, with many friendships lasting for decades. Of course, I have a circle of friends I’m closest to. They are the ones I trust and am most vulnerable with.

Perhaps that’s why one of the hardest things I’ve had to overcome is the hurt I have felt when someone I trusted betrayed me. It hasn’t happened too many times, but one in particular wounded me deeply. I remember, as I was reeling from the shock of it all, I began to examine my heart, and I was surprised to realize that gradually, almost subconsciously, I had put my anchor—the one that was supposed to be reserved for Jesus and Jesus alone—in our friendship. I didn’t mean to, but somewhere along the way I had put more emphasis on our friendship than perhaps I should have.

I had admired my friend, trusted her, confided in her, and when she hurt me, it sent me spiraling into a place of angst, confusion and grief. I didn’t know what had hit me. In that corner of my heart, without realizing it, I had pulled up anchor. Rather than being firmly anchored in Jesus, I realized that I had become anchored in our friendship.

Have you ever discovered that your trust was in something other than Jesus? Maybe it happened when you went through a series of trials. In my experience, when the storms of life hit, and especially if they hit one right after the other, our anchoring in Jesus can become dislodged without us realizing it. To protect ourselves and survive, we can end up tethering ourselves to something else entirely. It can be people or positions, goals or career moves, money or prestige, even dreams or plans. It can literally be anything. Including a friendship.

It’s such an easy thing to do—to drop our anchor in other places instead of in God and His Word—but when we do, we drift from having our hope firmly anchored in Jesus. And when we’re not anchored, we can’t endure. We’ll drift with every current, letting it take us where we never wanted to go. Let’s examine our hearts together today. Let’s drop anchor in Jesus once more. Let’s make sure we are firmly anchored in Him—and nothing else.

Heavenly Father, thank You for showing me if I have dropped anchor in anything or anyone else other than You. I put all my hopes in You, the true anchor of my soul. In Jesus’ Name, amen.