Living Anchored when Your Life Comes Unmoored

This friend is an encourager. Maybe she learned it during a scary season waiting for a diagnosis or found it in those trying moments as a mom and foster mom. Micah Maddox has her first book coming out next month and it’s my joy to have her share today about living anchored when life comes unmoored.

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There are moments in life that are so devastating there are no words to utter. You see people surrounding you and their lips are moving, but the words cannot be absorbed due to the burden that consumes your mind. You try to move forward with a normal routine, but the world seems to move in slow motion as problems persist, paralyzing your best efforts to press on.

Life can hurt deeply. It can scar the tender parts of your heart and make you feel like your life is completely drenched in a sea of problems that cannot be remedied.

The truth is, there is a remedy. There is someone who anchors us and He holds all power to overcome every problem we face.

But, accessing His power sometimes seems impossible. Living anchored, grounded, and full of His power feels out of reach. Life is manageable when bills are paid, kids are healthy, marriage is working, church is delightful and work is enjoyable. When test results reveal serious illness or when a marriage is sitting on the edge of disaster, the stability of life lingers with unknown possibilities and we quickly forget the anchor that once held us securely. Unexpected bills, heartbreaking conversations and a life of heavy burdens unload themselves into a world that seems to be shattering right before our eyes. I know this to be true because just like you, I have a list of desperate moments when I needed much more than the world offers.

What is a desperate, hurting soul to do when life is filled to the brim with problems? Cling to the power and presence of God. If you know Him, He’s already with you. Right there, in the midst of the unpredictable, He knows every single detail of your life. He is an anchor that does not budge. When everything in life is in disarray, God’s presence is constant, firm, secure.

“But you shall cling to the Lord your God, just as you have done to this day.” (Joshua 23:8)

Our deepest moments of life are often the ones that draw us into the presence of God more authentically than ever before, or they push us so far away that we cannot see, hear, or remember what it feels like to be close to Him. When it seems like God is far away and the water of life continues to billow overhead, it’s normal to try to achieve nearness to God by doing more for Him or by striving to ignite the inner strength we know we hold. The problem is that power is not something we can muster up when we think we need a fresh dose of the Holy Spirit. It goes much deeper than a crisis prayer at the moment of an emergency. We must know that God’s power is present every moment of our life.

The Holy Spirit does not blow in like the north wind on a fall day shaking every leaf of our lives to the ground wondering if we will be able to withstand the storm. He indwells every believer at the moment we choose to accept Jesus Christ into our lives and consistently remains present and accessible no matter what our lives look or feel like. When the wind of life rushes in and we are shaken, we have what it takes within our own bodies to stand firm, be grounded, anchored, and tethered to the greatest power ever known.

The biggest problem we face is not a lack of God’s power, it’s realizing where real power comes from. It’s not from you and it’s not from me. It’s from the Holy Spirit of God within each and every believer.

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11)

Until we fully and completely accept the fact that real power comes from God and God alone, we will never really experience it. The power that we desperately desire is distinctly divine. Sometimes we get glimpses of it from a book, a sermon or a song, but if we want to experience it every day, there is only one way.

God’s power is present in people that pursue it.

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Micah Maddox is a women’s conference speaker, Bible teacher, writer and author of Anchored In: Experience a Power-Full Life in a Problem-Filled World. She is passionate about helping women find purpose, peace, and calm in our chaotic world. As pastor’s wife and mother of three, she contributes her time to MOPS and her local church, serving as a women’s ministry leader. You can find Micah at MicahMaddox.com and on Facebook here.