These words begin the chorus from the song Blessed Assurance by Fanny Crosby. Fanny Crosby was a prolific hymn writer, having composed around 8,000 hymns in her lifetime. This song’s origin differs somewhat from how Fanny usually wrote hymn lyrics. Her friend Mrs. Phoebe Knapp visited her and went to the piano and played a musical arrangement that she had written. After playing the song, she asked her friend, “what does this song sound like to you?” Fanny said, “It sounds like blessed assurance Jesus is mine.”
My grandmother was blind, and Fanny Crosby’s blindness seems to have given me an affinity for her songs. Recently several of us superintendents gathered around the bedside of our dear friend Kevin Donley, and someone asked what his favorite hymn was. Immediately the reply was, “How Great Thou Art.” We all sang a verse to and for him that evening. It got me thinking about what my favorite is. This is a difficult question like asking your favorite child or favorite flavor of ice cream.
In a world that is unstable, I like the simple words of affirmation found in Blessed Assurance:
“Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.”
This verse speaks of our relationship with Jesus and how this relationship came to be. I am born of His Spirit and washed in His blood! The glory experienced here is but a foretaste of what is to come!
“Perfect communion, perfect delight,
visions of rapture now burst on my sight.
Angels descending bring from above
echoes of mercy, whispers of love.”
Interestingly, a blind woman used many “seeing” words and phrases in her songs. “visions of rapture now burst on my sight.” This stanza reminds me how often I have heard and continue to hear His “echoes of mercy, whispers of love.”
“Perfect submission, all is at rest.
I in my Savior am happy and bless’d,
watching and waiting, looking above,
filled with his goodness, lost in his love”.
Today we must keep watching and waiting. Tune out the world’s noise and spend time with the Lord so that we may be “filled with His goodness and lost in His love.”
Of all the things we could be doing today, how about turning the television off for a little while and focusing on the Lord? Many are on edge and upset today because they spend so much time drinking from the well of negativity, partisan complaining, and discord. If a blind person like Fanny Crosby could see the blessings of the Lord, we can too regardless of how bleak things look today. What is your story? It is not too late to experience his blessed assurance!
“This is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long.
This is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long.”
May this be more than a refrain from a song. May it be our testimony today! What is your story?
The song “Blessed Assurance” was and is my favorite hymn. The words speak to me. It was part of the installation service and Indianapolis Westside in Sept 1997. What a wonderful time it was to begin ministry at that church.