In my quiet time yesterday, I put on a worship song. If I’m honest, worship music that I can bare to listen to is hard to come by these days. So much of our Christian music tends to put our focus on guilt, shame, and inability (the old man) instead of the new man that is already alive in us. I have found that if I continue to reuminate about my failures I forget about my authority.

But that’s a whole other blog post. ;)

A particular line in one song stood out to me. It said, “My anchor holds within the veil.” It comes from this verse in Hebrews: “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil.” Hebrews 6:19 (NKJV)

Every time I think of hope I think of this scripture: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”

When you put the two verses together they seem to contradict each other. Is hope an anchor or does it make your heart sick? And hope in what? Just hope for the sake of hoping?

God never wanted us to live in the hope deferred condition. He wants us to live with desires fulfilled. The key is putting your hope in the right thing. The answer to what we must put our hope in is found in the verses that precede Hebrews 6:19.

“Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and their oath serves as a confirmation to end all argument. So when God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath. Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged.” Hebrews 6:16-18

There are two immutable things to put your hope in:

1. God doesn’t lie.

2. He guaranteed your inheritance of all the resources of the Kingdom of Heaven and sealed it with an oath by the sacrifice of Jesus.

I’m feelin’ like that is a pretty great place to anchor yourself.

Keep renewing your mind in everything Jesus died to give you. I say this all the time because I do it all the time. When I’m overwhelmed, frustrated, scared, sick, in grief, lack, or pain I recount what is already mine; what has already been done for me.

Here’s my list straight outta scripture:

·       I have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness. Everything I need to complete my mission and fill my purpose is already here.

·       Every promise God ever made to anyone is yes and amen for me because I am in Jesus.

·       All things can work together for a victorious outcome if I will allow the Kingdom of Heaven to be my only reality.

·       I can always be the head. I don’t have to be the tail.

·       I can always be above. I don’t have to be beneath.

·       God is always FOR me. He is NEVER against me.

·       I am saved, healed, delivered, prospered, protected, anointed, set apart, holy, and righteous.

·       This isn’t God testing me. He tested Jesus for me.

·       Jesus won the victory and gave me the keys to the same authority over death and decay that He has.

Once you’ve renewed your mind to these realities your heart will begin to anchor itself in the right thing and you will begin to see desires fulfilled.

But if you keep hoping in “maybe God will help me” or “God can do whatever He wants whenever He wants so it’s up to Him what happens to me now” you’ll never have the faith to see what you’re hoping for through to fruition. God exercised His free will to give you authority, dominion, and the right to choose whether to partner with Him for your outcome or partner with chance.

In and of itself, hope has no power to anchor you.

Hope for the sake of hoping is not an anchor for the soul. Hope in the finished work of Jesus is an anchor for the soul.

Hoping with fingers crossed that God will do something will make your heart sick with fear of the unknown, longing, and desperation. But hope in the knowledge that the victory for what you’re facing has already been loosed for you in Heaven will anchor you. It will cause you to be immovable and unwavering about the outcome.

In a word, anchored.

And it’s the one who is anchored, immovable, and unwavering that is able to receive what they need from God.

“But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.” James 1:6-7 (NIV)

So I am totally geeking out about this. Like, in a BIG way.

Can we all at least admit that nothing has been built back better since this last election? If everything rises and falls on leadership, and I believe it does, America is in big trouble.

But we don’t have to sit and be silent about it. We can educate ourselves on hot-button issues while building lasting bonds and looking for ways to take local action. And that is what the Independent Women’s Network seeks to do.

IWN is the latest arm of the Independent Women’s Forum, the leading national women’s organization dedicated to developing and advancing policies that are more than just well-intended, but actually enhance people’s freedom, opportunities, and well-being. They use their platform and voice to educate and advocate for women.

And I am soooo on board with everything they are doing.

I didn’t have much if any, interest in politics or public policy growing up. When I married my husband almost 25 years ago the Democrat versus Republican conversation never came up. I grew up in a conservative household but didn’t know it until I was well into adulthood when my dad gave me a copy of Dennis Prager’s book, Still the Best Hope. I discovered two things while reading this book: being a conservative means possessing common sense and turns out my husband was and always has been a conservative. A brown, immigrant, conservative. He’s one of The View’s favorite oxymorons.

Then came the 2016 election. When I heard President Trump announce his candidacy something in my spirit leaped. I knew we had the wrecking ball our government desperately needed. I was a fan.

As a former evangelical church staffer for over 10 years and a lifelong committed follower of Jesus Christ, I came out as a MAGA fan. And I could not believe the backlash! I mean, I expected some for sure. I’m not completely naive. But nothing prepares you for Believers trying to preach political sides to you while literally denying the system of justice God laid out for us in scripture (which most have never read). When challenged with the Word and sent a personal invitation to discuss over coffee… crickets.

Even pastors and their wives. It was quite literally sickening.

I asked for feedback from people I didn’t agree with. All it did was prove their agenda was not to walk in love. Note to self: never ask for feedback from people who do not genuinely love you. And NEVER ask for feedback from those who are motivated by reparations, victim mentalities, or who look to define racism in places it doesn’t exist.

I lost friends and followers. Good riddance.

And then the great divide we all witnessed… church leaders who stood in support of Trump at complete odds with those who opposed him. Oh, the irony! The irony was two-fold. The irony that some of our most prominent male and female Christian* leaders were dreadfully offended at Trump’s pride and arrogance was astonishing because I’ve literally never met a person who accused someone of pride that did not themselves walk in pride.

AND…

The current state of America is due IN FULL to the failure of church leaders who have gone before us. Full stop. They brainwashed us in religion (yes, the evangelical churches too) and failed to stand up to government overreach for YEARS. Then, when the going got tough they buckled. The reality is this: anyone who voted for anyone other than Trump was gravely deceived and unlike the Sons of Isaachar, they didn’t understand the times (1 Chronicles 12:32).

It’s amazing how these worldwide traumatic events have caused a long walk through the institutions. We see how fragile the church is, how sick the educational system is, how corrupt both the Left and the Right truly are, and how passive the average American is.

But no more. We are waking up and fighting back. A grassroots tribe of conservative thinkers is on the move and the Independent Women’s Network is a leading part of this movement. If you are in the greater Phoenix area, contact me here for more information. If you are in another state be sure to check the IWN website for local chapters you can join or maybe even start your own!

Here’s the thing: when you know the truth you don’t have to be afraid. When you have a group of like-minded women who are for you and who get you, your confidence will build exponentially. We can’t run the race alone and we certainly cannot be among those who sat back and complained while the world literally fell apart around us and we lost all our freedoms.

I refuse to answer to God for that.