I don’t know about you, but as I compare the beginning of 2021 with 2020, it carries a very different feel. In January 2020, I was preparing for my dream vacation and doing well in my health goals, but I can’t imagine what the next vacation will look like and health goals have gone out the window. Things change, plans get cancelled, we hardly know what the next few weeks will hold. I heard a radio personality say that this year people seem to be missing a desire to dream...to hope.
Many of us have given up trying to plan and dream because we just can’t imagine what the future will look like. But isn’t that exactly what we are told about faith in Hebrews 11:1? “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
How do we put hope in something we do not see or understand? The image of boats comes to my mind. They move by the current and winds, but when needing to stay in a fixed location, a boat uses an anchor that is firmly planted onto something solid, not itself. For us, this is the solid trustworthiness of God. Hebrews 6:18-19 describes this: “that we…might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this hope as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.”
In firmly planting our hope in God, we don’t need our circumstances to be perfect. Through small but intentional daily connections like prayer, worship, study, and solitude, we plant our anchor in his certainty and have the hope that God has more good for us that we may not see in our current situation.
NCF student and professional nurse groups provide communities to grow in our spiritual discipline along with places for us to see the hope ahead. Yes, we lament together over the rough patches, but we also encourage each other to continue to press into God and look with his hope into the future.
So, let us take this time when we cannot see clearly what the future holds as an opportunity to anchor our hope in the solid foundation of Jesus, knowing we will be growing our faith every time we put out our anchor through daily steps with God, a faith that God has purposed for good.
Katharine Provost is a National Campus Staff Minister with NCF, equipping and supporting student chapters and faculty advisors on campuses all over the U.S.
Find out more about student ministry, Bible studies for groups and individuals, and leadership resources on the NCF website.
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