The Anchor Holds

In reading and hearing the lyrics of this song, it always comforts me to know that our Anchor always holds, no matter how high the waves of trouble or how strong the winds of life may blow. It especially helped me recently when an analogy was given in a particular message I heard, that our lives are like a sailing boat - faith is like the wind and hope is like the mast or sail. No amount of faith is going to do you any good if you don't first raise the sail of hope to catch the wind of faith that may blow. But "the anchor holds though the ship is battered/ The anchor holds though the sails are torn..." In other words, no matter how strong or weak our faith is, or how high or low our hopes are raised or let down, or how badly we are battered by the storms we encounter in life, Christ is the governing factor that determines our stability, and in Christ we have an anchor that cannot fail and cannot succumb.

Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Hebrews 6:19-20 (KJV)

I prefer the KJV for this verse because it is from this version that we in the Boys' Brigade take the spelling of our motto "Sure and Stedfast", and it is also from this verse we take our emblem of the anchor. However, if you prefer something less colourful in language...

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:19-20 (NASB)

The Anchor Holds - Ray Boltz

I have journeyed through the long dark night
Out on the open sea
By faith alone, sight unknown
And yet His eyes watching me

The anchor holds though the ship is battered
The anchor holds though the sails are torn
I have fallen on my knees as I faced the raging seas
The anchor holds in spite of the storm

I’ve had visions, I’ve had dreams
I’ve even held them in my hand
But I never knew they would slip right through
Like they were only grains of sand

The anchor holds though the ship is battered
The anchor holds though the sails are torn
I have fallen on my knees as I faced the raging seas
The anchor holds in spite of the storm

I have been young but I am older now
And there has been beauty these eyes have seen
But it was in the night, through the storms of my life
Oh, that’s where God proved His love to me

The anchor holds though the ship is battered
The anchor holds though the sails are torn
I have fallen on my knees as I faced the raging seas
The anchor holds in spite of the storm