Morning By Morning #142

“…if…ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”

1 Peter 2:3 KJV

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

“If”—then this is not to be taken for granted for every member of the human race. “If” “—then there is a possibility, even a probability, some people have not “tasted that the Lord is gracious.” “If”—then it is not a universal mercy, but a specific and special one, one where knowing if we have experienced His grace requires an inward examination. In fact, there is no spiritual blessing that is not a reason to search our hearts.

While this should be an earnest and prayerful search, no one should ever be totally content while any question remains or if there is an “if” about whether one has “tasted that the Lord is gracious” or not. A sense of self-distrust may cause a believer to question himself, but a continual questioning by a true believer would be evil indeed. Yet we must not rest, even if it means a desperate struggle, until we embrace the Savior in the arms of faith and can truly say, “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him” (2 Tim. 1:12).

So do not rest, 0 believer, until you have “full assurance” (Heb. 10:22) of your claim in Jesus. Allow nothing to satisfy you until, through the perfect witness of the Holy Spirit testifying with your spirit, it is confirmed you are a child of God.

This is not something to consider as trivial or to neglect! Do not allow “if,” “perhaps,” or “maybe” to attempt to satisfy your soul. Do not allow doubts here, but build on eternal certainties, and strongly build upon them.

Get for yourself the “sure blessings promised to David” (Acts 13:34). Let your “anchor for the soul…[enter] the inner sanctuary behind the curtain” (Heb. 6:19), and make sure your soul is secured to that anchor by a cable that will never break. Move beyond these lifeless “ifs” and live no longer in the wilderness of doubts and fears. Cross the Jordan of distrust and enter the Canaan of peace—yes, where Canaanites still linger, but where the land never ceases to flow with milk and honey.

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

Unfortunately, a Christian can lack full assurance of faith. There is even a denomination that teaches we can never know for sure. When asked if they will be in heaven when they die, they will typically respond, “Oh, I hope so!”

How terribly sad! What a poor witness to a lost and dying world that even Christians can lack assurance. Jesus desires we know we belong to Him.

As Spurgeon alludes to today, in agreement with the apostle Paul, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Rom. 8:16). And the apostle John declared, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). In an earlier passage John tells us the evidence of knowing we are believers:

“Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence…This is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us (1 John 3:18–19, 23 – 24).