19 This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Isaac.
Abraham became the father of Isaac, 20 and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram[a] and sister of Laban the Aramean.
21 Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. 22 The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.
23 The Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.”
24 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 25 The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau.[b] 26 After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.[c] Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.
27 The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents.
Reflection
Do you sing “Blessed Assurance” with your fingers crossed. This isn’t an idea I came up with. I got it from Charles B. Hodge who wrote a booked simply titled “Amazing Grace.”
Think about it. How blessed is our assurance, how amazing is our grace?
I’ve decided to do a long study on grace. I went through my library and found four or five books on grace. But that’s only a small fraction of the books I own.
I think back to a time when we were in Boston. I don’t know who found Chuck Swindoll’s “The Grace Awakening” but it profoundly changed the lives of Nancy and me. It was sometime around 1990, give or take a year. We were a part of a very evangelist soul-winning body.
Our church had about 1,800 members when we came in 1986. We were getting ready to have our gatherings at the Boston Garden. When we left in 1991 the church was at about 4,500 hundred and that was after sending out several mission teams around the world.
But something was wrong – at least with me. We were in the middle of all this excitement. Souls were being won and lives were being changed. But something was wrong—at least with me.
Swindoll’s book got us in hot water. We started leaving legalism. It was a long and hard journey.
But look at the words of Blessed Assurance.
The first paragraph goes, “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.”
How can anyone sing this song with their fingers crossed? But for many Christians this song is just wishful thinking. How many of us can unilaterally say Jesus is mine? We may hope for it. We may long for it. We might even believe it. But is it so?
The next verse goes, “Perfect submission, perfect delight, Visions of rapture now burst on my sight; Angels, descending, bring from above Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.”
Perfect Submission, I don’t think so. It’s so hard for me to surrender. At least when the surrendering is my idea. Jesus calls for perfect surrender, but he knows we can’t do it. He knows He can. And if I am leaning on his surrender, his righteousness I can have perfect submission.
Perhaps the last stanza is the best of all. We sing, “Perfect submission, all is at rest, I in my Savior am happy and blest, Watching and waiting, looking above, Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.”
How can someone write such words? Obviously, she had to mean them. Let’s look at the refrain. “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.”
She had to mean them. She had to have blessed assurance and perfect for this to be her story and her song, praising her Savior all the day.
Fanny Crosby, who wrote so many, many songs was blind, almost from birth. We truly can be blind and see.
by Rick Reed
For Pondering and Prayer
I really want to sing these words—and mean it. But only with God’s help.
Prayer: Almighty, Blessed Assurance, God. I want and need blessed assurance. Help me to know I can get it—through you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
