Contributor: Annie
Every believer longs for the deep assurance of their eternal place as a child of God, that they are valued, treasured and deeply loved, so much that the only begotten Son of God has saved them by His precious blood. And, at some point, we all question this. If we say we don’t, then we are deluding ourselves.
God knows us so well; He knows we will falter and that it is in this faltering that we will grow, that we will begin to know that assurance more deeply, more fully. “2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:2-3)
Through our darkest times, when all hope seems in this earthly realm to have disappeared, that glimmer of Light shines out, the One who is the Light of the world shatters the darkness. As young believers, often it takes a while for us to turn our eyes to the Light, the world still holds sway in our thoughts and reactions. But, we learn, step by step, we learn to be “confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6)
Our assurance of our salvation can never come from within us. It cannot be learned through our wisdom or measured by how we feel. That deep, unfathomable conviction that we know could never have come from our sin filled hearts yet caused us to cry out in response to the calling of God, is the beginning of our assurance. Our assurance is in God’s assurance to us, that He will never leave us, He alone holds the key to releasing us from fear, from anxiety, through His words of assurance to us.
As we face the trials in this journey we walk right now, we realise, as did John Newton centuries ago, that it is Grace that brings us safely through, and Grace will bring us home.
Each trial we face, each stumble we make, draws us ever closer to the One who will get us through, the One who is our anchor, our hope, our blessed assurance. Christ, our Lord and Saviour, is the One who keeps His promises through the power of His saving grace alone.
This is our assurance, that we are held in the power of His Love, that nothing can pluck us from His Hand. The same Love that caused Jesus Christ to be born of a virgin, to live fully human whilst still being fully God, that held Him to that cross at Calvary will forever hold us close to the Father’s Heart.
Prayer: Father God, as we begin a new year, we thank You for every trial, every storm, every dark valley, that we will face for it is by journeying through these that our assurance of Your saving power grows and flourishes.
Scriptures:
John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent; 1-John 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.