God’s Love is the Anchor that Holds Us Steady

When Aliza took her first cooking class, she could hardly contain her excitement. Becoming a chef was a life-long dream, and she had almost started to believe she’d never achieve it. As a teenage mother at 17, with only her mother to depend on for support, Aliza had barely finished high school. She went to work part-time immediately after graduating and at 20, married the father of her child. He was only a year older than she was, and their marriage was rocky from the start. With a dream deferred, living paycheck to paycheck, with one problem after the other, Aliza was exhausted, disappointed, and angry all the time. One morning, during one of their many heated arguments, she hit her husband with an iron, and at 26, she found herself in anger management class with a marriage that was falling apart and a child that was acting out in school.

Many of us grow up without learning how to apply faith and build upon it so that we maintain balance when things get hard. The emotional toll that life can take on us and our relationships can be devastating, and we might end up feeling angry at the world, incomplete, and unequipped to turn things around. In times like these, it’s easy to feel like we are drowning in our own struggles. And when we are forced to comply with outside interventions, we might feel even more powerless to change our lives for the better. Rather than sinking into an abyss of hopelessness, we can make a different choice. We can look to God and allow our faith in Him to become the anchor that holds us steady.

The Apostle Paul was struggling with an issue that was very troubling. He took this to the Lord three times, and 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NLT) tells us, “Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.” God’s grace is a strategy for victorious living. You might ask, “how does this look in my own personal circumstances?” Well, most of us don’t want to admit or show our vulnerabilities. We try to keep them hidden, but nothing in the dark stays hidden. So, when we refuse to confront issues of anger, disappointment, sadness, and other emotional heavies, with God’s love, life is designed by Him to show us what we’re refusing to see, and often this isn’t pleasant. Our vulnerabilities are exposed in a way that calls us to attend to them.

God doesn’t force us to trust Him and put on more of His love, instead He will guide us if we allow it. When we feel like we’re at our lowest, that is when we should choose the strategy of God’s grace. We should consciously avail ourselves to the Father and lean on His strength, which is infinitely beyond our own. In our most vulnerable moments, His power shines brightest. Isaiah 40:29 (NLT) tells us, “He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.” It’s a reminder that, no matter how small or insignificant we feel, God is always ready to meet us where we are and offer His strength when we need it. Our privilege and obligation are to simply choose to receive it, trusting that His love is always enough.

Building faith isn’t just about standing tall when everything is smooth; it’s about trusting God when the storms of life come crashing in. He is inviting us to trust Him more deeply, to rely on His grace, and to let His power work through us in ways that we may not fully understand, but that ultimately transform our lives.

This transformation doesn’t happen overnight. Many of us spend years trying to handle things on our own, relying on our own strength. We’ve believed the wrong things about God and ourselves, and those beliefs have shaped our actions, attitudes, and behaviors. It took time to build the life we have now, and it will take time to release the things that are holding us back. But as we begin to embrace the promises in God’s Word, those promises will empower us to move forward. Philippians 1:6 (NLT) tells us, “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” This verse assures us that God is actively working in our lives, even when transformation feels slow. He is faithful to complete the work He started in us, shaping us into the people He created us to be as we surrender to His love.

As a young mom and wife who didn’t know much about God’s Word and promises, Aliza was headed down a path of self-sabotage and anger, but God had a plan that was infinitely better than the one she had for herself. Her anger management counselor said that faith had helped many people come to grips with their anger. Those words ministered to Aliza more than she realized. As time progressed, she strengthened her faith through deep reflection, prayer, and seeking understanding of God’s love and promises. With the support of her husband and others who encouraged her to trust in God’s grace, Aliza began to change the direction of her life.

She learned to surrender her anger, disappointments, and past mistakes to our Heavenly Father, and in return, she received healing and strength. Her marriage did not instantly become perfect, and problems didn’t disappear, but she began to see everything through new eyes, and anger no longer defined her. Slowly, but confidently, she is pursuing her dream of becoming a chef, and her life has become a testimony of God’s transformative power. She knows with all her heart that His love is the anchor that holds her steady and guides her to the future that He has planned for her life. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

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