In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath,
so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, (Hebrews 6:17-19)

An oath should carry great weight for both the person making it and the person receiving it. It’s a decisive appeal to the highest power available, intended to end all doubt over someone’s word and confirm the reliability of the promise being made. Though people have repeatedly made nonsense of oaths through lying and perjury, they are still meant to demonstrate the integrity of one’s word. 

An oath is, of course, only as good as the character of the individual making it. Therefore, we know that God’s promises are trustworthy if for no other reason than the fact that Hemade them. He didn’t need to guarantee His promise with an oath; the bare promise of God to His people is sufficient to command our belief. Yet He went a step further, swearing by Himself, since He cannot swear by anyone or anything greater. 

God has brought us from the realm of hopelessness into the reality of hope, and the anchor of our souls is secure and certain. It is fixed to an immovable object—the promises of God—and fixed in the unseen heavenly realm by the God who cannot lie. These promises are so secure, in fact, that sharing them with others in evangelism is compelling to them, because we live in a world that is full of desperation and a culture that tries to cover its discontentedness with fake smiles, vacations, and material gain.

How wonderful that we can be people who are grounded in faith, anchored by the promises of our God. Jesus Christ is worthy of our trust, and we can know that “all the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Corinthians 1:20), whose life, death, resurrection, and ascension have achieved for us a momentous and eternal victory. 

Which promises of God to you do you find hardest to trust and to build your life upon? Remember who made those promises. He is the same God who swore to childless, elderly Abraham that his descendants would be as innumerable as the stars in the sky above him—and who kept His promise. He is the same God who swore to His disciples that He would be rejected and killed, and then after three days rise again—and who kept His promise. Remember who has made the promises you find hard to believe. Remember what He is like. That is the anchor for your soul and the hope for your future.

Devotional material is taken from Truth For Life Daily Devotional by Alistair Begg. Copyright © 2021, The Good Book Company. Used by Truth For Life with written permission.