Assurance from God, Or Self-Assurance

When the great crises of life loom before you, would you rather have assurance from God or self-assurance? Great moments of choice and lifelong decisions in terms of consequence should be based upon the most profound and only choice upon which to base life's pathway. Self-assurance is empty when it lacks divine guidance, and all human assurance is subject to the frailty of human knowledge, experience, and absence of fore-knowledge.

The believer has the greatest source of assurance, but "not all have faith" (1 Thess. 3:2). Many who claim to have faith do not seek solutions to their problems in life from the wisdom of God. Many who say that they are Christians have opportunity to marry faithful Christians who are steadfast and strong, but the opportunitists choose rather to marry unbelievers of poor character to their own hurt and ruin. They assure those who exhort and warn them that they know what they are doing and that all will be well. Their marriages end in divorce, and their children suffer the burden of their parents' folly for most of their lives.

Many professed believers seek salvation in ways not commanded of God, while refusing to accept God's way and His assurance in His Word. Rejecting God's assurance, they choose their own standard of conduct, their spiritual fellowship, their own churches, their own form of religious conduct, and their own code of morals and ethics. All the while, they assure themselves that all is well with their soul -- self-assurance of salvation.

True believers turn to the Lord for their "full assurance of faith" (Heb. 10:22). "Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord, Teach Me Thy Way," they sing and pray. They apply themselves to diligent study of the Word of God with the aim of complying with it and walking in "The old paths wherein is the good way" (Jer. 6:16), unwilling to walk elsewhere. They pursue diligence in faithful service to God "to the full assurance of hope until the end" (Heb. 6:11). They seek to enrich their hearts "to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in Whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:2,3). What a comfort it is to do anything with the assurance of the Word of God that it is the right and proper thing to do! No nagging doubts or fearful worries accompany assurance from God. Our hearts are assured before God when we live and love as we ought (1 Jn. 3:14-19).

Assurance that originates from self or from mankind is a form of pride and self-exaltation. Assurance from God honors and glorifies God and keeps human humility intact. If we know that we cannot see prophetically, that knowledge should impel us to seek the greater knowledge and guidance of God, to study and apply the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make us wise unto salvation which is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 3:15). Then "blessed assurance" reigns, and we can say with Job, "I know that my Redeemer lives," and with Paul, "I know Whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day."