Due to its significance for navigating, the anchor was once thought of as a sign of safety. Therefore, when the Christians adopted the anchor as a representation of hope for a better world, they were only giving a well-known symbol a new and elevated meaning.

Sa Tagalog ang anchor ay “angkla”. Ginagamit ang angkla ng mga mandaragat para maging safe ang bangka kahit may malakas na alon. Kapag ang ankla ay nakaposisyon, ang isang mandaragat ay may panatag na kalooban dahil alam niya na hindi madadala ng alon ang kanyang bangka.

The Bible says in Hebrews 6:19 (CEV) “This hope is like a firm and steady anchor for our souls.” We must have this full confidence in God na kahit anong mangyari, hindi Niya tayo pababayaan at hindi Niya iiwanan. Kapag dumarating ang mga malalakas na alon, unos at bagyo ng buhay, hindi ka dapat matakot, because you put your anchor down.

Kaya alam mo ba na according sa mga pag-aaral, mas mahahaba ang buhay ng mga taong madasalin at palasimba. Hindi maipaliwanag ng science at medicine why people who pray and go to church, have a higher survival rate than those who do not. Naniniwala na malaki ang nagagawa ng isang taong may pananalig sa Diyos. Dumating man ang bad medical report, they will say: “I am healed. By His stripes, I am healed. I am well. I will recover.” Dumating man ang redundancy sa work, they will say: “But my God shall supply all my needs according to His riches and glory…”. Dumating man ang takot, “If God is for me, who can be against me. No weapons form against me shall prosper…” Maging pasaway man ang mga anak, but still believe that: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. My children will be mighty in the land.” These people are not really courageous by themselves, but because their lives are anchored to the Words and promises of God, their belief is always be like: “I keep my eyes always on the Lord, with Him at my right hand, I shall not be shaken” (Psalms 16:8).

Alam mo ba na maraming bangka ang nawawala at nadadala ng mga malalakas na alon at baha dahil nakalimutan ng mandaragat na i-ankla ang bangka nila. Ganoon din ang isang Kristyano, madadala tayo ng pagsubok kung wala tayong ankla.

If we remember those men who built their house. The one built his house upon a sand and the other built upon a rock. Yong lalaki nag tayo ng bahay sa buhangin, these are people na walang ankla sa mga salita ng Diyos. The man who built his house upon a rock, is the one whose life is anchored in hope, in believing that God will give beauty from ashes and will never fail to give us something better. Sila yong mga taong punong puno ng pag-asa, dumating man ang mga problema, pero palaging kumakanta: “Alam kung may magagawa ang Diyos.”

Stay Devoted To Hope

Minsan si David ay nanghina and in Psalms 43:5 (NIV) “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”

Bakit ka nanglulumo, Oh kaluluwa ko? At bakit ka nababagabag sa loob ko? Umasa ka sa Dios: sapagka’t pupuri pa ako sa kaniya, na siyang kagalingan ng aking mukha, at aking Dios. (Mga Awit 43 : 5)

Maraming mga kabiguan si David and he has all the reasons to be sad and gloomy but he learned this principle to motivate and cheer himself up when he said: “Put your hope in God…” Umasa ka sa Diyos dahil kilala mo ang Panginoon.

In the book of 1 Chronicles 21, nagkasala si David sa Diyos: Then the LORD spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying, “Go and tell David, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “I offer you three things; choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you.”‘” So Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Choose for yourself, either three years of famine, or three months to be defeated by your foes with the sword of your enemies overtaking you, or else for three days the sword of the LORD; the plague in the land, with the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.’ Now consider what answer I should take back to Him who sent me.”

In verse 13, he said to Gad: “And David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Please let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are very great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

Alam ni David that the first two options are based on the discretion of man but he chose the 3rd option because he knows the Lord will be merciful to him. He knew how to put his anchor down by hoping in God, “His mercy endures forever, His love will follow all the days of my life.”

Hindi mo man nakikita na magiging maganda ang mga pangyayari, but keep the faith. People may let you down, but God won’t. Huwag kang aasa sa tao dahil sinasabi ng Bibliya na “sumpain ang mga nagtitiwala sa kapwa tao.” Do not trust your job thinking that it will sustain you. Do not trust in your wealth thinking that you will always have it. You can only trust Him, the author and the finisher of our faith. He will never take you this far just to leave you.

In Zechariah 9:12 “Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.” You cannot escape hope if you are a “prisoner of hope.” You’re tied up on it. Though all that has happened to discourage you, you still have faith, just like Joseph did, that your dream will come true.

Get Your Hopes Up

Ginawa ito ni Abraham. The word from God that he and his wife Sarah would have a child happened when Sarah was about 75 years old. Nothing could have been done. It’s never happened before. One option Abraham had was to brush it off and think, “I must have heard God wrong.” His friends probably told him, “Abraham, you look too old. You’re impotent and cannot make love to your wife. Do you think Sarah will have a baby at her age? She’s gone past the child bearing years.” Although Abraham had many reasons to change his mind, the Bible says, “All human reason for hope having been taken away, Abraham hoped on in faith.”

May mga pagkakataon na imposible na mangyari, like Abraham, he put his hope up to the Lord. Abraham believed that He is God and will never say something and does not do it. God does not lie and His words will not return void. Sa Deuteronomio 7:9 (RTPV) “Kaya’t pakatatandaan ninyong si Yahweh na inyong Diyos ay Diyos, at siya ay Diyos na hindi marunong sumira sa pangako.”

Minsan walang valid reason bakit kelangan pang umasa. Kita mo ng bagsak at lugi sa negosyo, pero bakit aasa ka pa na makakabangon ka pa uli? Kita mo ng sinabi ng doktor na mahihirapan ka ng gumaling, hindi ka na magkakaanak, bakit kokontrahin mo pa? There is no valid reason to hope, But after 15 years, against all odds, Sarah gave birth to Isaac. Job was tested for 1 year, he got illnesses, he lost everything he used to enjoy, his family tragically died but after that trouble, the Lord repaid him back double and he lived 140 more years to enjoy the favor of God. Joseph waited on God for 13 years before he saw the manifestation of the promise. Not only did he have to wait, he went through hell while he was waiting. Sold into slavery by his envious brothers and then accused of rape and sent to prison. Joseph had a tough time. These people put their high hopes in the Lord and because of that hindi sila binigo ng Diyos. God never fails (Joshua 21:45).

May isang kapatid tayo sa Maranatha na nakulong sa UK dahil siya ay naging TNT. He was an overstayer. He appointed me to become his immigration attorney habang nasa kulungan siya. Noong dinalaw ko sya, talagang down sya at sinabi niya, “Attorney, kung talagang wala ng magagawa sa kaso ko, uuwi na lang po ako. Pero naniniwala pa rin ako na hindi tayo bibiguin ng Lord at makakalabas pa ako dito.” I represented him in the court of law in London. A judge asked him what would he say, why would the judge release him out of detention. He said: “Judge, I want you to release me because my 3 year old daughter hopes that she will see me again. When the police came to my house, I promised my daughter that I will come back home. I cannot fail my daughter with that promise. While the police were handcuffing me, my daughter was embracing my leg and said: “daddy please don’t leave me…” I could see the judge was touched by those words. The judge said this: “Mr, I will make a decision now. I will release you so you can see your daughter who hoped to be with you.” Since then, he has been granted a visa to live and work in the UK. Because of that detention, the UK government gave him permission to stay in the UK.

What made the judge’s decision who instead deported this man, gave him the right to remain in the UK? It was the hope of the child who was waiting home for her father to come back.

Cut All Negative Anchors

The Bible says in Proverbs 13:12 that: “Delayed hope makes the heart sick” means that the longer a person goes without seeing their hope realized, the more likely they are to become discouraged. Your heart and spirit will be sick if you don’t have hope that the problem will get better, that the dream will come true, that you will get the new house, or that your baby is on the way. Something is wrong inside when you’re not expecting God’s goodness, being hopeful, and cheerful.

May isang binata ang nangisda kasama ng kanyang kaibigan. Noong makarating sila sa tamang spot para mangisda, they put the anchor down. They were so happy until the afternoon but it rained heavily. They decided to go home and started to pull-up the anchor. Because it was heavy, they could not take the anchor up. They called someone home who they asked to help them. When the rescue came, they were pulling up the anchor but it became too difficult due to heavy storm. The man said, “we have to cut down the anchor as the tide is getting adverse.” They all sailed home without that anchor.

Ganoon din tayo. We can get stuck on ideas, people, jobs that are difficult to come out of with sometimes. Kagaya ng ginawa ng magkaibigan na iyon, you might need to cut that heavy anchors, the negative anchors, so to speak, if you’ve been tied to negativity, anxiety, or discouragement for a long time. Ayaw ng kaaway na makalaya ka. Gusto niyang palaging ikaw ay bihag at talunan. He desires that you not become dependent on hope. He wants you to live a bitter, hopeless, and doubtful life. It’s time to cut those negative anchors and sing that song: “This is the day that Lord has made, I will be glad and rejoice in it…”

I read this and will want to share with you. You can say aloud with me: “I DECLARE that God is bringing about new seasons of growth. I will not get stagnant and hold on to the old. I will be open to change knowing that God has something better in front of me. New doors of opportunity, new relationships, and new levels of favor are in my future. This is my declaration.”

Stay Anchored In Hope

Sport of canoe racing was added to the list of world events at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. The US team was the favourite in the four-man canoe race. A young man named Bill Havens was on that team.

As the Olympics got closer, it became clear that Bill’s wife would give birth to their first child around the same time that the U.S. team would be participating in Paris. In 1924, there were no fast jets that went from Paris to the US. Instead, there were slow ships that went across the ocean. And so Bill found himself in a dilemma. Is it worth it for him to go to Paris and miss the birth of their child with his wife? Should he quit the team and stay with his family instead?

Bill’s spouse persuaded him go to Paris. At the end of the day, participating in the Olympics was the fulfilment of a lifelong wish. Bill, on the other hand, felt torn, and after a lot of thought, he chose to drop out of the race and stay at home with his wife until the baby was born. He thought that being with her was more important than fulfilling his dream of going to Paris.

The US four-man boat team won the gold medal in Paris in the end. Bill’s wife was also late giving birth to their child. In fact, she was so late that Bill could have participated in the event and still been home in time to be with her when she gave birth.

It was called “What a shame.” But Bill said he didn’t feel bad about what he did. He thought he had made the right choice for the rest of his life.

Bill Havens knew what was important to him. That’s not something everyone gets. And he did what he thought was right. Some people are not strong enough to turn down something they really want in order to say yes to something more important. But for Bill, it was the only way to be at peace and not feel bad about what he did.

The child Bill and his wife had was a boy, and they named him Frank. Bill trained Frank and gave him the best he’s got. Twenty eight years later, in 1952, Bill received a cablegram from Frank. It was sent from Helsinki, Finland, where the 1952 Olympics were being held. The cablegram read: “Dad, I won. I’m bringing home the gold medal you lost while waiting for me to be born.”

That child, Frank, won the gold medal in the 10,000 metres C-1 canoe event in Finland. Frank Havens had just won the gold medal for the US in the canoe race. His father had always hoped to win this medal but never did.

In Hebrews 11:1 it said that: “Faith is the substance of the things we hoped for…” is about trusting and believing the Word of God, which is promised. Embracing God’s words means acknowledging that He is too dependable to disappoint and that He is not a man to break His word. Tapat ang Diyos na nangako na hindi Niya sisirain ang mga bagay na kanyang sinalita. He is able to finish what He started in you. He will not take you this far in life just to leave you because He is able to do more than we ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).