Blessed Assurance
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
You and I both like certainty. No surprises.
Sure we do. We have plans for today, for the future. For the next few weeks, my diary is pretty full of all the things I’m planning to do. I’m really looking forward to the short holiday I have planned in a few weeks time. I’m planning to go to Rwanda and to India later on in this year. My daughter’s wedding is coming up.
See? It’s all planned. All nice and safe and predictable
But life’s not like that. Life can throw a curved ball at you, that hits you in the solar plexus and knocks the wind out of you. All of a sudden all your great plans fly out the window.
Life can be anything but safe and predictable, as much as that’s what we long for.
That’s where faith comes in. But the scary thing about faith, is that you only really need it when things aren’t safe and predictable. We all want to have faith, but really, honestly, we never want to be in a place where we have to use it. Am I right?
The ultimate place where we’re going to need our faith is at the end, when we’re close to breathing our last breath. The ultimate frontier, if you will, between this life that we cling to so dearly … and what comes next, whatever that might be.
Okay, so faith can be scary. But listen to this:
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)
I don’t know about you, but I, in and of myself, can’t conjure up that assurance of the things I hope for. I don’t have that deep conviction of the truth of the things that I can’t see – the eternal life that God promises me. Even just the blessings that He promises us here and now.
But you know what I’ve found? When “thicko” here finally gets it, that God is in this place with me, when I stand back from the cut and thrust of the day-to-day, and just realise that here, right here in this place, God is with me, then I receive that blessed assurance of the things I’m hoping for. Then I discover a deep conviction of the things I can’t see yet.
Look, you and I can’t do it on our own. But faith is gift from God. It’s a gift that He wants to give you, so that you can experience His blessed assurance of the things you hope for, and the deep conviction of the things you can’t yet see.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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