Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast. — Hebrews 6:19
On any given day, I put a lot of faith and hope into things that I interact with. For example, today I drove across several bridges, giving little thought to the faith I had in them to support my car, along with countless other cars. In that same car, I put on my seat belt because I have confidence that it will protect me if I were to be in a car accident. Even something as simple as my shoe, I have faith that the laces will hold it together and onto my foot to protect my foot from the elements.
We do not give a lot of thought to some of those little things. Those items could fail, but the hope that we have in their ability to work is founded in faith.
In Hebrews 6:19, the writer compares the hope of our soul to an anchor. While you may have never been on a ship, an anchor is probably something you are familiar with. It is something that a sailor would drop into the water in order to protect the ship and those on board. Generally, the anchor is used when the ship is not at home and may be out in the waters and exposed to the elements. The winds can blow and the waves crash against the boat, but the captain of the ship has his hope in that anchor, based in the faith that the anchor will hold no matter what comes against it.
As we are on the sea of life as it is often called, what is your hope founded in? Is it founded in the hope found in God, based on the faith that He can and will protect us? The idea of the anchor is that it secures the ship as the writer says sure and steadfast. The only place we can put our hope that is sure and steadfast is in God. To put our hope in anything else is to put us at risk of being overcome by the storms of life.