In our hardest struggles we feel like a small boat battered and tossed by the storm, drifting far off course in the darkness, perhaps never to find its way back.  We know how utterly out of control we and the situation appear, and hopelessness can seem the only logical response.

However, we tend to drift even when there is no storm, because we often aren’t anchored.  “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”  A firm and secure anchor will hold you in place regardless of the waves and currents, even if you are convinced you are drifting.  The anchor — not the ship — does the heavy work; disorientation has less impact on the ship when it is properly grounded.  Yet in a storm, being improperly anchored can give the illusion of safety as you barrel towards disaster.

Are you anchored?  To what are you anchored, and can it withstand the storm?  This passage invites us to anchor to the unchanging God (vs.17-18) whom no storm can overpower.  When this hope is our anchor, it may require us to stay in one place when we would rather move, to re-orient our thoughts and actions when the waves and currents disorient us, and to throw overboard anything — even good things — weighing us down.  As the storm rages there may be fear, but the storm will pass as the hope set before us — not created by us — holds.  Faith in this can make us “greatly encouraged” amidst the waves.