This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him. Psalm 91:2 NLT

In Lysa Terkeurst’s book, Uninvited,  She tells the story about finding refuge in a ravine near her childhood home. Her father, who was mean, made her feel unsafe at home, so she brought her favorite toys to the ravine and made herself a home there. The ravine was low-lying, where she could spy on the rest of the neighborhood while feeling safe and protected in her hiding place. She spent as much time as she could there to hide from her father at home. She said the ravine became her anchor of safety in an unsafe world. Yes, as an adult you saw this coming. Sure enough a rain storm came and her “anchor” and everything in it was washed away. She was heart broken. Her anchor turned out to be no anchor at all. 

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

We have all had “anchors” that have been washed away. I bought a used car several years ago, and as I was getting ready to drive it off the lot I told the salesman, “Wait, I did not even check the trunk to see if there is a spare tire.” The salesman laughed and told me, “Of course it has a spare tire.” I took his word for it and drove off. It was not two weeks later that I was driving down the expressway and had a flat. As I pulled over to the shoulder, I patted myself on the back for making sure there was a spare tire. I opened the trunk, and, to my dismay, there was no tire! The salesman let me down. I put my hope in him, and he was wrong. I am not going to say he lied, because maybe he really thought it was in there. But even though the salesman let me down, God did not! At the exact time I discovered I had no spare, a co-worker recognized me and pulled over right behind my car. He loaned me his spare until I could get to the car dealership to get one and give the salesman a polite earful. I learned an important lesson. Even when people let me down, God still has my back, People are not my anchor. God is my anchor.

Many think the church is their anchor, only to be disappointed when the church lets them down and their hopes are swept away. Here is where we are  wrong with thinking the church is our anchor: Nowhere in the Bible does it say the church is an anchor. Christ is our anchor. When I was seven years old, I was lying in bed one night thinking about the cross and the love Jesus has for me. I decided to give my heart to Jesus and get baptized. When I gave my life to Jesus, I made Him alone responsible for all my needs. I obey my superiors in the church as long as it doesn’t conflict with the Bible or my conscience. God is my ultimate boss. Since God is my ultimate boss I also hold Him personally responsible for my pay. If the church doesn’t pay me, or no one contributes to my Bible Worker Fund, I have no one to blame but God. Paul says,

Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people Colossians 3:23 NLT

Since I work as though I were working for the Lord and not for people, it is the Lord and not the people or the church that I hold accountable for my salary or benefits. That is not to say that God does not use the church to meet my needs. He does. But I do not trust or hold the church accountable. I trust Christ alone and I hold Christ accountable for all my needs. The church is not my anchor. The church needs an anchor. Christ is the anchor. 

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