112 - A Quiet Assurance

Psalm 139:7-12

Where can I go from Your Spirit?

Or where can I flee from Your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, You are there;

If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.

If I take the wings of the dawn,

If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,

Even there Your hand will lead me,

And Your right hand will lay hold of me.

If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,

And the light around me will be night,”

Even the darkness is not dark to You,

And the night is as bright as the day.

Darkness and light are alike to You.

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We are not alone, no matter how dark it may seem. By the indwelling of God’s Spirit in our inner being, we are never separated from Him. As Jesus said in anticipation of the Spirit to be given to us, “I will be with you always,” a promise that we would never be parted from Him. This is a quiet assurance for our hearts and minds when feelings arise that seem to contradict that truth. If before Christ, as Paul wrote, we move and breathe and have our being in God, how much more now, being filled with His Spirit, are we completely immersed in Him.

We think in worldly terms because all that surrounds us, all we can see and touch, is so prevalent that it becomes the dominant sense of what we believe reality to be. This often overshadows a spiritual reality, one that far transcends the world in its power to transform our lives. It has the power to change how we live by transforming the inner makeup of who we are and the way we see the world and the circumstances we experience. Situations can seem to carry a power of their own, influencing our minds and leading us to believe that what they represent is our true reality before God.

But we are neither less nor more with Him because of our thoughts or circumstances. Although much in this world would tell us otherwise, God is with us, for His word stands true for all time. Whether we feel it or not, our spiritual vision, our true reality in Christ, surpasses all things. God has established this reality by sending His only Son as a sacrifice for us, sealing our position before Him so that, without dispute, we may confidently take hold of what He has given us. His desire is that what He has done would firmly settle in our minds the truth that nothing is able to separate us from His love.

Was it because of anything we did that God called us to Himself? Were we not in utter ruin, in the pit of despair? He was there for us in the darkest of times; how much more now, having been saved, will He be with us through all things? As it is written, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” If during the most trying time, when we came to Christ, He rescued us with His righteous right hand, how much more now will His hand uphold us? If while we were sinners Christ died for us, how much more now will we be saved through Him.