HEBREWS 6:11-202008 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Hebrews 6:11-20

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2008. As we're looking at Hebrews chapter 6 and finishing off the chapter, it's piggybacking on, it's really right in the same line of thought as what we were discussing last week.

Last week we looked at one of the most difficult passages in the Bible, one of the strongest warnings that we find in the scripture. As the author of Hebrews speaks to those that he's writing to and he says that they've become dull of hearing because they're immature and they don't know how to hear from God on their own and they don't know how to spend time with Him and His Word and there's an immaturity there that's a great danger to them.

And so he's encouraging them to go on to maturity, to not stay in that immature state, because if they do, well, there's this great danger of falling away without possibility of return. And so he tells them, I want you to go on to maturity. And he says at the end, he's encouraging them there in verse 9 and 10, this is not what we are saying of you.

And that you have already reached that state. But what we believe about you is that you need to go on to maturity. We are confident of better things concerning you, but you need to go on. You need to show the same diligence, he was saying. And that's where we pick it up again here in verse 11 of chapter 6. He says, we desire that each of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end. And

And you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

And so, as he's continuing to write to the Hebrews, he wants to encourage them. He gives this strong, this stern warning. And it would do us well to take heed to this warning. It's not for no reason that he gave this warning. It's not for nothing. He's not just speaking hypothetically. There is a warning to be had here. And yet, the other side of the coin is that

God is not trying to get us to be completely freaked out all the time. You know, every time we round the corner, oh my goodness, have I gone too far? And God won't take me back now. He doesn't want us to be in a state of being attacked by eye things. He doesn't want us to be in a state of being freaked out and wondering, am I saved? And am I going to make it? And is this going to work? And are all these promises going to be fulfilled? Or have I blown it too far?

He goes on now to give us some great comfort. And man, some of the wording in here is just, it's hard to explain beyond what he is saying because there's such great hope that he offers here. He says, to the full assurance of hope to the end.

Later on in verse 18, he says we have strong consolation. In verse 19, he says we have this as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. You get the picture here that what he's writing about here is something that's solid. This is not shaky ground that we're on. God hasn't put us on this, you know, icy cliff.

situation, you know, you got to walk on eggshells and hope you don't mess up. And if you do, you know, you might just plummet into the freezing water and die there. He's saying, look, you have a sure foundation, something strong to stand upon. And that is why we desire that you show the same diligence to the full assurance of the hope until the end.

He's talking about this hope that we have. Now, hope, when the Bible speaks of hope, is different than what we often use and what we often mean when we use the word hope. When we use the word hope, often there's some element of doubt in it. In fact, there might be a lot of element of doubt. In fact, it might be more likely to not come true

than to come true when we hope for something. I hope I win the lottery. Well, it's more likely you're not going to, but that's a hope that you might have.

But when the Bible uses the word hope, it's not that way at all. When the Bible uses the word hope, it is a confident expectation. It's something that's absolutely certain. It just hasn't come to pass yet. It's as certain as if it already had come to pass, but it just hasn't come to pass yet. It's a confident expectation of eternity that the author of Hebrews is talking about.

And so he says, we're desiring, here's our desire for you, that you would show the same diligence to the full assurance of the confident expectation of eternity that you have all the way to the very end. He wants us to have, God wants us to have, God desires for us a confident expectation of eternity. And that comes to us, he says, we desire that you show the same diligence, the same diligence.

Not a different diligence. Not more diligence. But the same diligence. What is he talking about here when he says the same diligence? The author of Hebrews is writing to believers in Jesus Christ. They're believers who had grown, but because of a lack of spending time with God and His Word, they've become immature. And so the author of Hebrews is saying, look, the same diligence that you showed that produced the growth of

in you to begin with is the same diligence that I want you to show until the very end.

The same diligence that you've shown thus far. The same diligence that produced and allowed for God to grow you and strengthen you. You go back to the beginning of your life in your walk with Jesus Christ and that diligence that you showed in responding to His message, receiving Him as Savior and Lord, being obedient to Him, hearing His voice and responding to what He has said, this same diligence...

we desire for you to show to the full assurance of hope to the very end, until the end. The idea here is that we need to be diligent to walk with God and to know Him. That's how we started. We are saved, we are born again when we begin that relationship with Him. And it's that relationship that we walk in, and it's in that relationship, and only in that relationship, that we have full assurance of

of hope until the end. It's only in the midst of this relationship that we have the confident expectation of eternity.

With the same diligence, continue to walk with God just like you did in the beginning of your relationship with God. He speaks to you. You respond. You put into practice the things that He's sharing with you. You take out those things that He's shared with you to pull out of. You take those steps of faith that He calls you to take. You spend time with Him personally and you get to know Him and you share your heart with Him and you allow Him to share His heart with you through His Word.

That same diligence that you showed in the beginning, He says, we desire for you to show that until the very end. It's like what Jesus said to the church there in the book of Revelation. He's speaking to one of the churches, He's correcting them, and He is telling them to go back and do the first things. Do the things that they did at first. Because at first, when they first started a relationship with God, things were good.

They were walking with God. They were living in relationship with God. But they had moved from that. And that's what the author of Hebrews is saying. We don't want you to move from that. You've gone into immaturity. What we want you to do is show the same diligence that you showed at the beginning. It's all about a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It's that simple and it does not change. This is the way that God desires to give us full assurance of hope.

He intends for us to have a confident expectation. And that's what this passage is really all about. Walking with God produces full assurance. And so I encourage you to walk with God, to walk in relationship with God, so that you have this confident expectation all the way until the end. It's what Jesus was talking about in John chapter 15, when he says, "...abide in me, and I abide in you."

And as we abide in Him, He produces fruit in our lives. He does a great work. We have anything we ask in His name. There's wonderful promises that we have and great confidence that comes from abiding in Jesus Christ, from keeping that same diligence that we had at the beginning, walking in relationship with God. It's not a false hope or a hope under false pretense.

Just making up our own rules or I hope my, you know, God will understand my good works outweigh my bad works. I've got, you know, these things going on or I did this and I've got all these justifications. Listen, I have a hope which is a confident expectation of eternity because I have a relationship with Jesus Christ right now. This is where my hope is from. This is how I have the full assurance and this confident expectation.

Do you have full assurance of hope? Do you have this confident expectation? He says, we want you to show the same diligence and not to be sluggish, not to be lazy, not to be lax, not to move away from this relationship with God, but to hold fast to that relationship with God, to stay close with Him. Because it's in that closeness, it's in that relationship that you have full assurance of hope until the end.

And so he says there at the end of verse 12, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. So imitate, copy, duplicate, live like they did. Those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. We have good examples of that. He'll use Abraham in just a moment as an example of that. One who through faith and through patience inherited a promise. But what I would challenge you to consider, what I've been considering this week is,

What examples do we have of those who inherited the promise but did not have faith and did not have patience? Look at the scriptures. Examine. Search it out. Do we have any examples? We don't. We have no examples of those who had no faith and no patience and yet they still inherited the promises. There's maybe one example that we could consider. It's found in the book of 1 Samuel. And it's in regards to King Saul.

Now King Saul was the first king of the nation of Israel. He was appointed by God, singled out by God to be the king, anointed by God to lead his people as king, chosen by God from the beginning. And he started out really well, but he didn't end so well. In fact, he didn't middle so well either. He quickly began to waver.

And disobey God and turn away from God and not in rebellion, but in disobedience. I guess that's the same thing, but we just look at it in different ways. He didn't intend to rebel against God, but he just couldn't bring himself to obey. Again, same thing, but disobedience.

This guy Saul, there's a great debate that goes on, and we don't need to have the discussion this morning, but I'll just reference it briefly. Whether or not he actually will be in heaven or not. Will he be in heaven? Because, well, he messed up pretty badly, and he rebelled against God, and he died not really in faith. He didn't die in faith. In 1 Samuel chapter 28, it's the end of Saul's life. It's

He's just about to be killed and he goes to a witch to raise Samuel from the dead to try to hear from the Lord. Now talk about dull of hearing. This is what he was seeking to do. He wants to hear from God. So he goes to a witch to raise up Samuel who had died in order to try to hear from the Lord. Definitely he had lost his connection with God. And God allows this to take place and Samuel comes and he speaks to Saul.

And he tells Saul this, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord nor execute his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day. Moreover, the Lord will also deliver Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines. And he says, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also deliver the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. So the question that many people ask is, is Saul in heaven? Well,

The only thing that we have to base the discussion upon is this sentence right here where Samuel says, And so people on this side say, See, he's going to be in heaven because Samuel said you're going to be with me. And Samuel obviously was in heaven. So he's going to be there. The other side of the argument says,

He could just mean that you're going to be dead just like I am. You're going to join with me in death and you're not going to continue on there on the earth. And so there's this argument that goes back and forth and this discussion that goes around. I'm not trying to answer that discussion. Here's what I'm trying to say. There is a discussion. There's a question. It's uncertain.

And no matter how you dissect it and argue it, there'll be someone on the other side who could say, yeah, but, or what do you think about this? Or, I don't know, that's not for sure. And that's the point. How many of you want that kind of question about your own eternal state? Well, maybe, and we could argue all the different sides, wouldn't you rather just have the full assurance of hope until the end? This is what God has for us. This is what God desires for us. This is what God has designed for us.

And it's found in the same diligence, in the simplicity of walking in relationship with God. We have great examples of those who did that. They walked with God and there's absolute certainty. There's no question. Where's Abraham? He's with the Lord. Where's Peter? Where's Paul? Where's John? They're with the Lord. Where's Joseph? He's with the Lord. Where's Saul? I don't know. He says, "...imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises."

Take a good look at your life. It'll take longer than you have time for in the message this morning. So later on, take a good look at your life. Compare it. Compare it to those who have inherited the promises. Consider, have I imitated them? Am I setting myself up to inherit God's promises? Am I being diligent to walk with God until the very end? He gives us an example of one who has, and that is Abraham in verse 13. It says...

So we have the example of Abraham. God made a promise to Abraham and that promise was fulfilled. The promise he made to Abraham is found in Genesis chapter 22.

You can check it out on your own. It's the situation where God desires to test Abraham, and so he tells him to take his son, his only son Isaac, and to sacrifice him on Mount Moriah, the same mountain that Jesus would later be crucified on. But if you know the story, God does not allow him to actually carry out the act. He stops him before it takes place, but he tells him, there as he stops him from sacrificing his son, he says, um...

In verse 16 of Genesis 22, he says, And so God gives him this promise. And he says, And he says,

And the promise is, blessing, I will bless you, and multiplying, I will multiply you. And let me just ask, just asking the audience as a, what's it called, a helpline or whatever, was Abraham blessed? Yeah. Was Abraham multiplied? Anybody remember this song? Father Abraham and many sons, many sons, I am one of them and so are you. Let's all praise the Lord. Right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg, nod your head, turn around, sit down.

Why do we sing this song? Because the promise was fulfilled. Abraham did have many descendants. Not only physically from his own body, the children of Israel that came out of Egypt and lived in the land and continue to live in the land today, but also spiritual sons, spiritual descendants. Galatians, Romans, they tell us that the true seed of Abraham are those who are the seed of faith, those who believe in God and have relationship with God. And so Abraham had many descendants. He was blessed.

This promise was fulfilled. After he patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Verse 16. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. So, God's promises are fulfilled. This promise that he made, he swore by himself. He says, by myself I have sworn there in Genesis 22, 16. Now, in contrast, he goes on there in verse 16 of Hebrews 6 to tell us,

Men swear by something that's greater than them. It's an oath, it's for confirmation, and it's a way to end disputes. But God didn't have anyone greater to swear by. He is the ultimate, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, all-powerful, almighty. And so He swore by Himself. There was nothing greater for Him to swear by. Yet we, well, we're not in that state. And so when we take an oath,

sworn testimony that takes place in a courtroom. It used to be towards God. I think mostly now, if I remember my jury duty days correctly, they swear under penalty of perjury, that type of thing. And so in that sense, they're swearing an oath, but it's to the state, it's to the government, something that's greater than them. When we were kids, you know, kids don't trust each other because we're all liars and we know it. And so when another kid is telling you something,

Or when I was a kid and another kid was telling me something, you know, you'd make them promise. If you really doubt, you promise? Do you swear? Some would say, do you swear to God? We would say, do you promise to Jesus that that's true? And then, you know, if they would promise to Jesus, then we figure out they're probably telling the truth. He says the promise is the end of all dispute.

When you go to jury duty, usually the prosecutor, the defense attorney will give you some kind of, you know, this is not CSI speech. And they tell you, you know, you're not going to have empirical evidence. You're not going to have all the technical tests and things that you see on TV and all the ways that they lay it out. That's not going to be it. The majority of court cases are based upon eyewitness testimony, sworn testimony.

And your job as a juror member is to determine the credibility of the witness. And if they're credible, then you can believe them. If you don't believe they're credible, then you don't necessarily consider their testimony to be true. And so the point is, it's still true to this day. Cases are decided, people are convicted, things take place all upon the basis of a promise. It's how we know or it's how we try to determine what is true and what is not.

So he uses this, verse 17. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the ears of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. Why do we make promises? I would suggest that we make promises for a variety of reasons, sometimes not so noble. Sometimes we make promises that

To make sure that we keep up our end of the bargain. It kind of helps us. Well, I promised and so now I have to fulfill what I said. Sometimes we promise to try to convince someone that we're telling the truth when we're not. Sometimes we promise in order to bring comfort and hope to those that we're making the promise to. And that's the reason that God promises.

That's what he says here. God is not promising so that he keeps his bargain. He's not promising because his word alone isn't enough. He's promising. Why? Because he desires, there in verse 17, he determines to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel. If it's immutable, it means it's unchangeable. God takes an oath. He makes a promise for our sake, not for his.

He makes a promise so that we can have great assurance and hope, so that we pay extra attention. It's like Jesus, when he would say, throughout his ministry, he would say, Verily, verily, I say unto you. Or, Truly, truly, I say unto you. Do you think that means that Jesus was not always speaking truthfully the rest of the time?

No, of course he was. He was God. Why would he say that then? Well, because these are truthful things that he wants you to pay extra special attention to. It's for our sake, so that we take heed, so that we sit up and pay attention and say, what is he saying? God determined to show you more abundantly. He didn't want you to just kind of know possibly that you might be able to inherit eternity.

He wanted you to know more abundantly, beyond a shadow of a doubt, having great strong conviction, strong consolation, full assurance of hope to the end. He wanted you to know that you are an heir of promise, that you are set to receive God's promises. He wants you to know that He fulfills His promises, that His word does not change, that His word is accomplished, that what He says will come to pass. And so He confirmed it with an oath to be an example for us.

That we can know as we see the example as God promised it to Abraham, it was fulfilled in Abraham, the promises that are to us by God and Jesus Christ, they will be fulfilled as well. They will be fulfilled. He goes on to say that by two immutable things. What are the two immutable things? First of all, that he says it and that's enough. God's word alone is enough.

It will be fulfilled. But then he goes on and he swears to it. He promises. He takes an oath upon it. And by these two things and the fact that it's impossible for God to lie, we have strong consolation.

That's what he says there in verse 18. The whole point is that we would have strong consolation. And I love the words that he uses here because, check it out, he could just say consolation and that's enough really. Consolation, it means comfort, encouragement. And so he makes a promise so that we have comfort and encouragement. But then he adds on these words that really probably are not technically necessary, but they do help us. Strong consolation.

We don't just have a little bit of comfort. We don't have just a little bit of encouragement. We have strong consolation because God keeps His word. Because God is faithful to do what He has said and what He has promised. The whole point is that God wants us to have strong consolation. Those of us who have fled for refuge, we've fled from this world, from this life, from our own selves to find refuge in Jesus Christ.

We fled to lay hold of the hope that is set before us, the hope that He gives to us, of being with Him, of seeing Him, of a new body, of eternity with God, of things that, well, cannot even be imagined or expressed. As the Word says, the eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man that which God has instilled for those who love Him. We fled for refuge in God. And those who have, as we run to Jesus,

to lay hold of eternal life, He says, I want you to have strong consolation. God says, I want you to know and have great comfort in knowing, great encouragement in knowing. You don't have to have weak consolation or only a little bit of comfort. I want you to know abundantly the truth of my words and what I'm saying so that you can have great, strong comfort during your times of hurt and pain.

so that you can have great and strong exhortation and encouragement in your times where you want to give up, so that you continue to press forward, that you continue on in your relationship with God. He wants to give us strong consolation. He makes this point further in verse 19. He says, this hope we have is an anchor of the soul.

both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become a high priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. Here he brings up Melchizedek again, and we're going to get into him in more detail in chapter 7, starting next week, and I encourage you to read ahead. He started this in chapter 5. He was talking about Jesus, a priest, and the order of Melchizedek.

But then he took a little bit of a break because he said, even though I have a lot to say about this, he says, you're dull of hearing. And so now he deals with this other issue in chapter 5 and 6. And then in chapter 7, he comes back to Melchizedek to continue that train of thought and that discussion. But here in this parenthetical thought that he's giving in the end of 5 and chapter 6, he gives this strong warning, this need to press on, to not continue on in immaturity and

But He gives us both sides of the coin. And that is, not only is there a danger, but if you hold fast, and as you keep the same diligence, as you show the same diligence, as you walk in relationship with God, you can have full assurance of hope, strong consolation. God has desired to show you abundantly that you have a solid foundation in Him.

And a guarantee, an absolute guarantee of the promises that He has made, of His word which He has brought to you. And this hope, the confident expectation of eternity, He says we have as an anchor of the soul. An anchor of the soul. What is your soul anchored to? What is your soul anchored to? The core of your life, who you are. What are you tied to? What is most important in your life? You know, when a ship...

is anchored. It either drops its anchor, which falls to the bottom of the ocean floor, and because of the weight, it holds fast, it holds the position, keeps it in the same place, the ship that drops its anchor, or it's tied to, it's anchored to something, perhaps like a dock or a buoy, or you get the picture. So what are you anchored to? What are you tied to? What keeps you in place? And I can tell you that if you...

Well, if your life is a wreck because of the circumstances that are happening around you, you've anchored to the wrong thing. We're living in the midst of turbulent times. Politically, we saw that. Proposition 8 and those things. And who knows what's going to come to pass.

The next president and all those things. I mean, there's a lot of uncertainty. And sometimes Christians can get a little unnerved and unsettled because they look at biblical prophecy. The United States isn't in it. What's going to happen to us? Are we going to be destroyed? Are we going to fall apart? What's going to happen to us? Hey, if you're anchored to this nation, if what sustains you and what keeps you is the state of this nation, you're anchored in the wrong place. If you're anchored to your 401k,

This is what's going to keep me. This is what gives me peace. This is what holds me fast. You're anchored to the wrong place. Look what happens in the stock market. Everybody's freaking out. Those things are not guaranteed. They're not going to last. You're anchored to that house. Well, what if it's taken? What if you lose it? What if it slides off a cliff? All those things happen. These things are not meant to last. Even, well, my anchor is, you know, my true love. Hey, that person's going to let you down. What are you going to do?

What is your anchor? What are you tied to? What does your life consist of? What is the most important thing to you? See, we have this promise before us, this promise of great assurance, full assurance of hope. No lacking, no lack of assurance, no questioning, no wavering, no doubt. We have full assurance of hope, strong consolation. God wants to show us abundantly. And it's found as we walk with Him in relationship with Him.

It's only when we're anchored to Him that we experience the fullness of this peace that God has for us. The full assurance that He wants us to have. It's as we're anchored to Him that, hey, this life, it doesn't matter.

This life, yeah, it's going to be tough. It's going to be difficult. There is going to be turbulence. But through the midst of it, I can have peace that passes understanding. And why does peace pass understanding? Because it doesn't make sense. And why doesn't it make sense? Well, it doesn't make sense to the people around you because they don't know that anchor. They don't know that hope. They don't know and it doesn't even make sense to us many times. Why do I have this great joy? Why do I have this peace? Why do I have this great joy?

Why am I not freaked out about the economy and society and politically and everything? Why am I not freaked out? Because my hope is in heaven. And I'm looking to eternity. This is what God has for us. See, He doesn't want us to be. He says, look, you don't need to be all stressed out and anxious and worried. Yes, there's a lot of uncertainty to come. There's a lot of difficult days ahead. You don't have to be freaked out about it. But if you are...

You better ask yourself, what am I anchored to? What's most important to me? See, if we're moved, if the turbulent waters can shake us away, we better check what we're anchored to. Because this anchor is the anchor of our soul and it's both sure and steadfast. Again, words, he's using them and they mean something, they're important, but again, they're a little overkill so that you and I get the picture.

The anchor that we have is sure, it's certain, it's firm, it's steadfast, it's stable, it's trustworthy. It's not going anywhere. It's a solid foundation for us. This anchor which enters the presence behind the veil. A reference there to the tabernacle where there would be the veil that separated God's presence from the priests who ministered. And the work of Jesus Christ was to be our forerunner into that presence.

The forerunner is one who goes in advance so that others may follow. Jesus entered into the presence of God, paving the way, preparing the way so that you and I can follow. This is the anchor of our soul. This is what is able to give us full assurance of hope to the very end. This is what is able to give us strong consolation. We have Jesus Christ as

who's passed through the heavens, entered into the presence of God as a forerunner for us, inviting us to follow, that believing in Him, by faith in Him, we have the same inheritance, the same promise, the promise of eternity with God. We get to inherit the promises of God. And guess what? God's promises are always fulfilled. You're the heir of the promise, Jesus Christ, the anchor of our soul.

And it's not obtained by works. It's not about a merit system and we don't get merit badges. It's not about that we have to work hard enough and then we can have this full assurance. It goes back to the relationship, showing the same diligence as what we had when we first began, that walking with God, believing in God, just like Abraham did. He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. In the same way, we believe God.

We walk in relationship with God as we hear from Him and respond to Him and spend time with Him. He does the work in us that He wants to do and He corrects us and He teaches us and He shows us and He tells us to take steps of faith. He tells us to take steps of correction. And just as we did in the beginning when we first started out with God, as we continue in that, we're abiding in Jesus Christ, abiding in that relationship. And the product of that is full assurance of hope until the very end.

Do you have full assurance of hope? Do you have strong consolation? Oh, I don't know. Man, sometimes I just want to give up. Hey, do you have strong consolation? It comes from walking with God, from knowing God, from having Jesus as the anchor of the soul. I want to close with something Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. He says, Therefore, we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Everything you see, even if it's just numbers on a computer screen that show your balance, it's temporary. It's not going to last. And if you're anchored to that, you will not have...

Full assurance of hope. You won't have strong consolation. But if you anchor yourself to Jesus Christ, if you will walk with Him in relationship with Him, then like the Apostle Paul, he says outwardly, we're wasting away. Yeah, things are happening. It's tough out here. There's a lot of things happening to us. But inwardly, we're being renewed. There's life. There's vibrancy. There's joy. There's peace. There's a great work that's going on inside as God is working within us.

He says, because I'm not focused on the things that are seen. I'm focused on the things that are unseen. Those are the things that are eternal. Those are the things that will last. Those are the things that will matter. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we consider these things, Lord, I'm reminded of the scripture that says that you will keep at perfect peace him whose eyes are stayed upon you because he trusts in you. God, I pray that that would be true of us this morning. Help us, Lord, to place our eyes on you.

to trust in you completely, Lord, that we might experience that perfect peace that comes not from our strength or our resources. Lord, we see the government responding to the economic crisis and trying to figure out all kinds of ways. Lord, where's our trust? Are we really trusting in you or do we think we've got it figured out, how we're going to fix our lives, how we're going to accomplish the plans that we've made for ourselves and the goals that we've set? Lord, help us to trust in you, to place our hope in you,

to make you the anchor of our soul. Thank you, God, that you provide for us an anchor, something to hold on to, that in the midst of turbulence, in the midst of all of these difficulties and uncertainty and unknowns, Lord, it can be overwhelming, but Lord, you offer to us such great consolation, strong consolation, and full assurance of hope. Thank you, Lord. Help us to turn to you, to walk with you, to abide in you, Lord, that you...

might be able to work in us as you desire to do. And Lord, that we might experience the fullness of all that you have for us, receiving every promise, because they're yes and amen in you, Jesus Christ. We praise you, God. You're so good to us. Help us to stay close to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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