Blessed Assurance

The hymn 'Blessed Assurance' ranks as one of my favourites.  It is a hymn that sums up perfectly the assurance we have through Jesus. It reflects our response to God as his children.  For me, it sums up my relationship with God in that I have felt his presence at the most difficult and most painful times in my life.  The memories of those difficult times do still hurt.  There are times when the pain shows and I realise that it hasn't gone, it remains in the shadows.  My consolation comes from knowing that God is there 24/7 to pick me up and keep me moving forward.

Some might consider that ongoing struggle a sign of weakness, a sign of lacking Faith, but in reality that vulnerability can be beneficial.  I know I need God's help, I know I need his sustaining power to deal with the challenges.  

Paul had absolute confidence in the God he served, in his letter to the Romans he reminds us that nothing can separate us from the love of God:

Romans 8:35-39 NIV

[35] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? [36] As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” [37] No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. [38] For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, [39] neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let us share in that confidence, no matter what the world throws at us.