Perfect Assurance…
Posted on May 23, 2017 by Graeme Wilson in Freedom Fighters
What have you placed your confidence in… I mean, if everything were to come apart in your life, what could you count on to remain?
The past few years have been a bit crazy as I sit here looking back over them; I realized that God has touched almost every aspect of my life… revealing how transient our health, relationships, wealth, education, employment, possessions, and desires all are. As heart rendering and stressful each of these trials are, I have also seen how faithful and loving our God is. In each circumstance, He has provided through someone that He has used to reveal His faithfulness to me and my family. There is not room in the message to communicate all Our Heavenly Father has done, but I can tell you this, there is one precious thing that has grown in me that I would never have known if not for the struggle; that is confidence in Jesus my Savior. The song writer called this “Blessed Assurance.”
In preparing for the sunrise service, I have been moved by the account of Mary Magdalene. Her heart was truly broken in the loss of her Lord. I think of all of the believers at the time, she truly understood what it meant to be redeemed; you see Jesus had removed 7 demons that had possessed her. The freedom and renewal this must have had on her would have provided her a glance at the salvation from sin and death Jesus’ sacrifice would provide. I believe her weeping over His death came from a heart that knew that her life depended on His presence for all eternity. Even though He spoke many times of His resurrection, and even though they had the testimony of Lazarus being called forth from the grave, Jesus defeating sin and death and rising again without someone like himself present to call His name, seemed so impossible… And ‘then came the morning’ that Mary Magdalene would hear Jesus call her name once again. How her heart must have soared to hear His voice say ‘Mary’…
John tells us what happened next, he says “she came ‘announcing’ to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord,’ and that He has said these things to her!” (John 20:18)
What confidence she exuded! What joy must have sprung in her words, how her life had changed, all because she had met our Savior face to face in the midst of her ‘storm’…
Mary’s confidence was no longer in the transient things of this world, but in her living and eternal Savior who the writer of Hebrews tells us, “is able also to save forever (completely, perfectly, for eternity) those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede and intervene on their behalf [with God]” (7:25).
I pray your confidence is anchored in Him as well, I hope you will turn to Him in all things, not just the struggles, and give Him the praise due the One who loves you with His life.
Choose wisely….
“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:19-23)
Praying 4 U
Written by David Brown: David Brown is a husband, father, and grandfather with a Masters of Religious Studies and a Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Religions. Dave is a member of Pemberton’s First Baptist Church.
The Daily Bible Reading: 2 Samuel 15-19| You can download our 2017 Daily Bible Reading Plan by clicking here
Daily Quote: “Faith is a living and unshakable confidence, a belief in the grace of God so assured that a man would die a thousand deaths for its sake.” – Martin Luther
This Week’s Verse to Memorize:
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials. 1 Peter 1:6