Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
Hebrews 10: 22 (NIV)
Scripture: Ephesians 4: 22-32
When we take our eyes off God and look at the world around us, it can get very scary at times. In the Bible, we read about an assurance. This devotion looks at what assurance is and how we can get it.
Cliff Notes
- The Bible tells us that we can have assurance or confidence in God.
- We can’t earn assurance or work to increase it.
- We gain assurance as we draw near to God.
- We have assurance in God through faith.
- We need to approach God with a pure heart.
- Our conscience plays a role in convicting us.
- God wants us to be pure — heart and conscience – and obedient.
Assurance is having confidence in something. The Bible tells us that we can have confidence in God. “And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him” (I Jn. 5: 14 NLT). We can have assurance of His love because of how He interacts with us.
However, sometimes we have the opposite — doubt. We let things of this world pick away at our assurance in things God has told us. Or God is telling us something that we think is so impossible that we just can’t believe it.
We can’t earn assurance. It isn’t something that we can work to increase. So, how do we get this assurance?
Draw Near to God
We gain assurance as we draw near to God. How we approach God is important. God is approachable; we can boldly approach Him. We just have to do it in the right way.
The first way we approach God is through admitting we are sinners, believing that Jesus is our Redeemer, and confessing God as our Sovereign Lord. We have to turn our lives over to Him.
If you have not admitted that your relationship is not right with God,
have not asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior,
and have not confessed your sins,
please read through the Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
Next, we need to approach God with praises. We were created to praise Him. We need to approach Him with reverence and honor.
Finally, we must draw near to God for guidance on what a life turned over to Him actually looks like. We need to follow His laws and commandments so that we will meet His standards.
We can approach God because of what He has done for us. “God has done it all! He sent Christ to make peace between himself and us, and he has given us the work of making peace between himself and others. What we mean is that God was in Christ, offering peace and forgiveness to the people of this world. And he has given us the work of sharing his message about peace” (II Cor. 5: 18-19 CEV).
God has provided us with hope. “This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary” (Heb. 6: 19 NLT). We have this hope as we go through our daily lives, looking to the One Who created and sustains us.
We have to remember, too, that God draws near to us. God gives us what we need. At the right moment, God also encourages us. He either nudges us or puts someone in our paths that will say exactly the words He wants us to hear
Faith
We have to have assurance in something. We have assurance in God through faith. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11: 1 ESV). Faith means trust.
We have faith in God for what He has done in the past. We have the assurance of His love. “But God has shown us how much he loves us — it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us! (Rom. 5: 8 GNT). Because of our faith based on what God has done in the past, we know we can have assurance of His love and guidance for the future.
Sincere, Pure Heart
We need to approach God with a pure heart. We have talked before that the sign of a pure heart was the fruits of the spirit. You know, “… love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5: 22-23 HCSB). This is how God calls us to act.
To read How Should We Give Thanks to God?, click the button below.
I had to laugh at the sprinkling reference. My Insomnia Buddy and I were talking about ironing and hanging clothes on the line yesterday. I am well familiar with the reference to sprinkling.
Mom used to sprinkle the clothes sometimes before she ironed them. She had this glass coke bottle that had what looked like an old saltshaker top on it. She would fill the bottle with water and shake the water on whatever section of the clothes needed to be wet for ironing. She could specifically target the sleeve or front or whatever was wrinkled.
Doesn’t God do that? He sees sin in our hearts and zeros in on it. He roots around and exposes it, until we have to deal with it.
Clean Conscience
Christianity is not just a heart thing; it is a head thing, too. Our conscience plays a role in convicting us.
Wouldn’t be wonderful that, when we did our ABCs, we quit sinning? Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen. Our mind has made the decision to follow God; our habits have to catch up.
With the sinning, sometimes comes guilt. “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God” (I Jn. 3: 21 ESV). Another translation says, “… if we don’t feel guilty …” (I Jn. 3: 21 NLT). We have to continue to ask God forgiveness for the sins we commit and omit.
If we listen to our conscience (which some have called the Holy Spirit), it will keep guiding us away from the sin. It will also show us when we have failed miserably in that.
Sometimes, God can and will use others to be our conscience. Paul told the Colossians that he agonized and struggled over them. I bet he did that in prayer.
Look at the why: “I do this in order that they may be filled with courage and may be drawn together in love, and so have the full wealth of assurance which true understanding brings. In this way they will know God’s secret, which is Christ himself” (Col. 2: 2 GNT).
Washed Body
What the washed body is referring to is baptism. While baptism isn’t a part of salvation, it is a part of the confessing. It is obedience.
We’ve talked before about Jesus’ baptism. We looked at how priests had to wash before going into God’s presence.
God wants us to be pure — heart and conscience. He wants us to be obedient.
Making the Connections
Reading back over this, what pops into my mind is the old saying, “Practice makes perfect.” We don’t earn it after each time something happens where we have to put our faith and trust in the assurance that God has this.
But I think it does grow. We see God took care of us when this small thing happened. The next time, it was a little bigger — then a little bigger. Finally, when we got to the big stuff, we have complete assurance in God because our confidence in Him doing what He said had been proven.
Wait a second. Isn’t that God sending things to grow us? So … If faith is a gift, and hope is a gift, is assurance a gift also?
It isn’t us — anything we can do. It is total God.
But we do have to do our part. We have to persevere in the knowledge and hope of assurance. “Now we want each of you to demonstrate the same diligence for the final realization of your hope” (Heb. 6: 11 HCSB).
If we lock our assurance up in the closet with the suitcases, it hasn’t grown since we shoved it in there. It might not be big enough for the next trial.
How Do We Apply This?
Have you thought about keeping a journal? It doesn’t have to be fancy — unless that will help you keep on track. It can just be a notebook or a file on your computer.
Have three columns. Describe what the trials are in the first column. Keep track of how God assures you in the second column. In the third column, decree the resolution of the trial. You might want to put dates on your entries.
God will assure us of His love and presence. He will assure us of His control over everything in our lives. We can depend on that.
Loving Father. We thank You that You love us. You are present in our lives. You grow our assurance in these things. Help us to keep our eyes focused on You. Amen.
What do you think? Where is your assurance that God will do as He promised the weakest? What is the reason(s) why your assurance is weak? What verse on assurance can you cling to when the doubts start creeping in?
Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
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