By He Reads Truth
Frances Jean “Fanny” Crosby (1820-1915), an only child from Brewster, New York, was one of the most prolific hymn writers the world has ever seen, composing over 8,000 hymns, along with several books and over 1,000 poems. Because publishers in her day were often reluctant to publish a woman’s work, Fanny used more than 200 masculine pseudonyms over the course of her career.
Blind from an early age, Crosby saw the world through her mind’s eye. She would begin to compose a hymn in her head, and once she had it written on her memory, she would then recite it to her personal stenographer who would write it down for her. She often worked on 5 or 6 hymns at a time, each floating in its own corner of her imagination until she felt ready to let it out.
In describing her hymn-writing process, Crosby once said: “It may seem a little old-fashioned, always to begin one’s work with prayer, but I never undertake a hymn without first asking the good Lord to be my inspiration.” The hymn “Blessed Assurance” reveals that she did indeed believe her Lord to be good.
“Blessed Assurance” is an exploration of the wonder of what it means to walk presently in what Peter calls a “living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet 1:3). For Fanny Crosby, one thing this “living hope” means is that we have a reason, right now, to celebrate with the confidence to draw near to God, trusting that He will never cast us away. This hymn celebrates the goodness of being at ease in a confident and perfect love that casts out fear (1 John 4:18).
“Blessed Assurance” in unashamedly happy. Crosby uses words like foretaste, praising, delight, happy, goodness, and, of course, blessed to give the song its buoyancy. In a cynical world, a hymn like this is refreshing. Crosby isn’t offering Christians a false sense of optimism. She is articulating the sure and eternal benefits of the work of Christ given to the believer. “Blessed Assurance” invites us to “draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb 10:22).
For the blind hymn writer from New York, passages like 1 John 4:7-19, Hebrews 10:19-23, and 1 Peter 1:3-9 were cause for celebration, which is what this hymn sets out to do. The Christian’s hope for happiness and peace is not wishful thinking. It is based on what we have already been promised because of the finished work of Christ—a blessed assurance that Jesus is ours.
BLESSED ASSURANCE
Fanny Crosby, 1873
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.
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.
Perfect submission, perfect delight,
visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
angels descending bring from above
echoes of mercy, whispers of love. [Refrain]
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. [Refrain]
For an added layer of worship during reading plan, we’ve created a Spotify playlist for Hymns V! You can find the complete HRT Hymns V Playlist here, or listen to the first track on the player below. Enjoy!
235 thoughts on "Blessed Assurance"
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Joel Selby says:
I will pray for God’s strength, that He will discipline me for good works as He sees fit. I will pray for the courage to face and drop kick everything in my life that keeps me from experiencing and living out that blessed assurance.
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Fernando says:
I should delight in Gods goodness and not only that, be happy that there is a reward for coming close and being one with Christ. Rejoice and taste the love and joy that comes with being in the Lord not ignoring the pain of this wrong but putting my focus one the Love of God, who is Love.
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In my worship I need to be renewed with the spirit and the love of God. Rejoicing in His goodness and Love. As I worship I need to remember the promises that The Lord has for me.
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The gospel is the spread of the good news and what better news is there that Jesus died for me and that He now wants to know me. He loves me and that love lives inside me. We see the trinity at work as we look to Jesus and see the father through Him and filled with the love that the Holy Spirit provides.
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Man is his nature is in need of Love and we need to present that to each other and non believers. For no one has seen the father but His love lives in us and as we truly and genuinely love one another we can see a glimpse of the father who we can not see I. Our sinful nature and broken flesh.
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pray with a mind and heart and spirit completely surrendered to God. Being joyful in His love. Not necessarily always praying this prayer but making sure that I remember to delight in His love, mercy and kindness.
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Peter MacDiarmid says:
It was initiated by God, it was his plan, he will see it through.
It is a wonderful truth, to be celebrated!
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We have a certain hope in God, and it is a glorious, wonderful hope. Something to be celebrated!
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We need encouraging and to be uplifted.
God rescued us and we need to accept his offer of salvation and to be willing to dedicate our lives to following him.
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Noah LaBelle says:
It teaches me that man is meant to find joy in God. That God is more than enough of a source of our joy. God + nothing = joy.
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This shows me the joy that God gives us in the wonder of who He is and the work He has done in our lives.
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It teaches me that the gospel is one long joyful love story.
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I will continually search for my joy in God and nothing else.
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I will pray for God to be my focus throughout the day and to think on things as He does, to find the good in them.
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Jonathan Chambers says:
We have cause to be confident, fully assured and to be without wavering.
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God is good.
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Draw near to His throne of grace with boldness.
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It is indeed good news!
It has saved me, set me free. -
Earnestly for faith to believe in His faithfulness
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Braden Mcalister says:
This shows that gospel tells me to love therefore I must because to be with God is to love
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