Anchored To Hope

*Chapter one*

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." – Joshua 1:9

There are times when we face challenges, and it all seems as though it's never going to end. We come to points where we just hit rock bottom, everything just falls apart, there seems to be no form of peace nor joy in what we do. We lost all enthusiasm for what used to make us happy, what used to make us feel somewhat fulfilled and accomplished. Everything that makes life worth living for is taken away and now we just in some kind of dark tunnel that doesn't seem to illuminate light from any source. Such happens in life. It can be so depressing and devastating when we focus on the wrong side. In everything we face, every predicament that comes our way, there is always two ways of looking at it. Circumstances come for a reason. There are meant to make us grow, to make us become better and blossom into more. They don't come so that we shrink to less but so that we become more splendid. To be more extraordinary. To use every moment to fill yourself up.

The scriptures says, 'we are to be strong and of good courage'. Your true measure of courage is not whether you reach your goal- it's whether you decide to get back on your feet no matter how many times you've fallen. Jesus is always willing to help us. He never came so that we could suffer, no! He came to impart His spirit into our beings. Remember what you were told when you became born again? That you were a new creation in Christ and everything else passed away, you were a new being. It doesn't matter that you still look the same, it's the spirit that became new. Your spirit was rejuvenated and made whole. God gave you a new name, that's just as real as it can be, you are a new creation, as long as you're born again. The past doesn't matter much. Jesus did a whole lot that we have to be appreciative of. He made a bridge that directly connects us to the Father. Before the cross, only kings, prophets and priests had that kind of relationship with God, Jesus died, because of His death, We became dead to sin and alive in the spirit. That is to say, He deprived the enemy of the power to have harm over us. The enemy has no legal ownership over the believer!

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God – John 1:12-13

The above scripture talks about spiritual birth, not the physical one that we are all familiar with. So the believer is born of God. The power of God works in the believer. We serve a God of hope, a God of strength and a God of faith. That which God has in Him, He has deposited in your spirit. That can only come to a greater realization when we study the word of God. As you study, you input in your spirit the word of life. The word which gives life. The scripture says in the book of Proverbs chapter four, towards the end of the chapter that the word of God is 'life'. Life that gives the spirit health, so when you study the word of God, you fill your spirit with the words of life which you use to guard yourself against the Enemy. It's important to safeguard your heart against poisonous words. Don't believe in negativity. Don't let it orbit around you. Being a believer, your life has to be different from the others. When they speak negatively, you speak positively, when they speak defeat, you speak victory. It's not deceiving yourself when you speak faith. It's making the right confession. What you say, you become. Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, But his heart is not with you

We are not helpless as God's people, neither are we vulnerable to the wiles of the enemy. It's the reason we can count it all joy when we go through diverse tests: we have what it takes to go through the fire and not be burnt, and go through the waters and not drown. We need to be mindful of what we spend most of our time listening to. When you constantly allow yourself to worry and have fear rooted in you, you don't leave room for your faith to work. Yes, it can be so hard at times, nearly overbearing. We have what most don't have. The spirit of God. We were reminded that we are born of God. The scriptures tell us that whatever is born of God overcomes the world. You cannot be an overcomer without something to overcome. Before you become a conqueror, there is battle that has to be won. This battle that Christ already won. You are to walk in the goodness of His mercy, the goodness of His love, the goodness of his power. You have to believe without a reasonable doubt, that you will do it. You have to get to that point where your kind of faith has no loophole in which doubt can creep in.