You sing that hymn, “Blessed Assurance,” which includes the words—Jesus is mine. You struggle to believe with your whole heart that you are Jesus’ child. You feel that way often. You struggle with actually believing that you are a child of God. You may be new Christian or one who has been saved a long time.
One day a friend who was filled with doubt and spiritual perplexity asked the Scottish preacher McLeod Campbell, “Pastor you always seem to have peace of soul. Tell me how you can feel that you’ve got such a tight hold of God?” With a smile Campbell explained, “I don’t always feel that I have a hold of Him, but praise the Lord, I know that He always has hold of me.” That can give you great assurance by knowing the Lord God has a hold of you, and He will never let you go.
I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior at the age of thirteen. I grew some as a teenager but wandered off from Him during my college years. Upon graduation I vowed to God to start back going to church. God began using me in ways that I never dreamed possible. I taught Sunday School, was the Superintendent of the Young Adult Training Union, and taught a weekly Bible study. Still, I struggled with having an assurance of my salvation. It was not until I was taught 1 John 5:13 by Bill Gothard, through one of his seminars, that I had assurance of my salvation. This verse nailed down my struggle. It says, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” Yes, you have assurance of your salvation, because the Holy Bible (“these things”) was written so that you would “know” beyond a shadow of a doubt that you will spend eternity in heaven. That is what the verse says.
Now, that is blessed assurance!
