And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect
of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.
(Isaiah
32:17)
That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in
love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding,
to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;
In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
(Col 2:2-3)
Blessed are all who enter into the fruitful Arbors of the Lord, and blessed is
the assurance that attends our faith in Christ! This thrilling hymn is the most
popular of all of those written by the dearly beloved Fanny Crosby out of her
more than 9,000 hymns written. It is noteworthy that Fanny was the most
prolific hymn writer ever to put pen to paper, yet she did not begin to write
hymns until above fifty years of age. It is true that God saved Fanny Crosby’s
best wine for last. It is a disappointment that this great hymn is not included
in the 1940 Hymnal.
Blessed Assurance
Text: Fanny
J. Crosby, 1820-1915
Music: Phoebe P. Knapp, 1839-1908
Tune:
ASSURANCE
Blessed
assurance, Jesus is mine!
O
what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir
of salvation, purchase of God,
born
of his Spirit, washed in his blood.
Refrain:
This
is my story, this is my song,
praising
my Savior all the day long;
this
is my story, this is my song,
praising
my Savior all the day long.
Perfect
submission, perfect delight,
visions
of rapture now burst on my sight;
angels
descending bring from above
echoes
of mercy, whispers of love.
(Refrain)
Perfect
submission, all is at rest;
I in
my Savior am happy and blest,
watching
and waiting, looking above,
filled
with his goodness, lost in his love.
(Refrain)
Perhaps the most comforting aspect of being a disciple of Christ is we have no
need to doubt our salvation and His provision to keep us in His loving Hands.
We have full assurance of our state of grace in Christ. Everyone who reads this
devotion will know that his/her father or mother would never lift a finger to
harm him. They mean only good to their children. How do we know this? It is
because we KNOW our father and mother well enough to never doubt their love for
us. If we have a saving faith in Christ, we, too, will not doubt His love and
intentions toward us. We must KNOW Him because we have our being IN Him!
“Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his
blood.” Just as the Shulamite maiden said of her beloved, so must
we say of Christ. “My
beloved is mine, and I am his…..” (Song of Solomon 2:16) He is
OURS, and we are HIS! We love our Lord because He first loved us. Did you first
love your own mother, or did she first love you long before you were capable of
loving? We were conceived in the heart of God long before we were conceived in
our mother’s womb. Living in the abundant grace of our Lord, we do, indeed,
have a foretaste of that glory which is to come. We are heirs of the Kingdom
and joint-heirs with Christ by the purchase of God at Calvary. Of course, flesh
and blood cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and we were ONLY flesh and blood
sinners before the new birth when a new Spirit entered into our hearts and gave
us a new and eternal life. Being washed by the blood of Christ, we are clean
altogether in the eyes of the Father. We are first made clean in the
inner man by the Holy Spirit of God; and then we are made altogether clean
(inside and out) and justified by the washing of the blood of Christ.
This is true to the Psalm: “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” (Psalms 51:7) If the heart
is clean and pure, the outer man will also appear so.
“Perfect submission, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on
my sight; angels descending bring from above echoes of mercy, whispers of love.”
You will observe that the perfect delight follows that perfect submission to
the will of God. The shining angels of our souls are constant in their
utterings of mercy and love to us as we follow the Narrow Way that leads up to
God. Even in this mortal flesh, we are pleased to have glimpses of the
Immortal.
“Perfect submission, all is at rest; I in my Savior am happy and
blest, watching and waiting, looking above, filled with his goodness, lost in
his love.” Our eternal Sabbath (rest) follows, again, upon
the heals of our perfect submission to the will of God. Our hearts must be
unconditionally surrendered before the Armistice of Heaven can bring a silence
on the battlefield. With our eyes fixed on our Lord, they are necessarily
focused away from the rags and false gems of the world. As Peter walked upon
the briny sea as long as his focus was on Christ, so may we walk upon the
glassy sea of the world as long as our gaze is above and not upon the turbid
waters of the world. We are literally lost in the vastness and infinity of the
Love of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We have no goodness in and of
ourselves, but being filled with His goodness, we are accounted righteous
before God.
We discover that the refrain to Blessed Assurance is a
double one which emphasis (twice) the same lines. “This is my story,
this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long; this is my story, this is
my song, praising my Savior all the day long.” May our song always
be of praise to our Lord both in the heat of the day, and during the silent
night watch. “I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with
mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search.” (Psalms 77:6) Our
story must be His Story, and that story must be one of Living Praise. We do not
reserve our songs of praise for the daylight sun, but also during the dark
night of sorrows. Remember: a day consists of 24 hours!
It seems a burning truth that the Holy Spirit laid claim to the heart of Fanny
Crosby in her darkness and blindness. Though she could not see the world, she
could see Heaven with uncommon clarity. May we likewise possess that single eye
toward God and a blind eye to the corruptible things of the world around us.
