Why Are You Drifting?

Here is the chorus of a well-known and well-loved hymn that was so forcibly brought to me.

We have an anchor that keeps the soul,

Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,

Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,

Grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love!

I was shown the soul as a vessel. Vessels sail on the seas. It is the nature of the sea at times, to have rough, fierce, rolling billows. This is part of the life of the ocean, when it is merciless and takes no vessel into consideration. Now look at these obvious facts.

An anchor is only needed when a vessel is fixed in one place.
The anchor keeps the vessel from drifting and being battered against some cliff.
It is the anchor that holds the vessel firm and therefore keeps it from capsizing.
The anchor keeps the entire vessel steadfast and sure, while the billows are rolling and raging.

If we are prepared to see the soul as the vessel, then we have an anchor that will keep us fixed, focused and steadfast, regardless of the raging billows of life. Look again at the anchored vessel on the rough waters. Can you see how it just rides the waves? Do you see how it is not taken away by the strong tide? Are you seeing how that vessel is not removed from its place of anchorage? Do you see how it is not at all harmed by the rough waters? This is so, only because of an anchor that is fastened to The Unmovable Rock, Jesus.

Let’s expose some more uncomfortable facts, which we probably would rather not hear.

The anchor firmly keeps the entire vessel fixed, so that it does not drift away. It is ludicrous to think that any anchor will hold the stern and not the front, or the middle of the boat.

An anchor really only shows whether or not it’s worthy, during rough, raging, fierce and raving surges. When the waters are mild, calm and docile, any anchor will hold. But it is the trustworthy, fastened to the Rock anchor, which is able to withstand the tempestuous tides. Any drifting vessel is one who has a ‘weak’ anchor, one that the tides easily break. If you are drifting, it is because your anchor is drifting.

Listen to some more disquieting and uncomfortable words.

The problem is NOT life’s storms, no matter how the strong tides lift, the surges rage, the breakers roar and the angry waves threaten to drown you. The problem is not even your frail, weak, powerless condition, nor your inability to keep yourself from drifting. No! Be not fooled into such thinking. The single problem is your anchor. It is easy for any seeing eyes to know that a boat is securely anchored on the rough waters, because it is NOT DRIFTING. The anchor, often not seen, is keeping that vessel focused, fixed and what I call, localized. Yes! You see the vessel going up and down with the dictates of the billows, but it rides them beautifully and it DOES NOT DRIFT.

Our anchor keeps the soul. See yourself as a soul made up of body, mind and spirit. Just as the ship’s anchor holds, not just part of the ship but ALL of it, so too, our anchor keeps all of us, not parts of us. Your mind is a part of you and so the anchor keeps your mind.

Why are you drifting in the stormy raging seas around you? Is your anchor broken? Has it been fixed to a movable rock? Are you simply being deceived into thinking your anchor is not able to keep you, because you are being pushed up and down by the rough tides?

Okay! But as you are aware of the ups and downs, the highs and lows, know this fact with dead certainty.