By Katy Mariotti

Assurance

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
Hebrews 11:1 New International Version

After a hot summer, we finally had some cooler weather recently. An overcast day had the clouds sitting low on the mountains, to the point that you could not even see that they were there. Coloradans have a tendency to joke about this: “Hey, where’d the mountains go?” But really, there’s not a second that I doubt the mountains are there. I know they’re there. What would shock me would be if the clouds cleared and the mountains were gone!

The verse from Hebrews has long been one of my favorites. A version I’ve heard is “faith is being certain of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” The NIV version calls it assurance. Do we have the same assurance in Christ that we have in the mountains?

There is a quote that came from an inscription found on a concentration camp wall after World War II. It says:

“I believe in the sun, though it be dark;
I believe in God, though He be silent;
I believe in neighborly love, though it be unable to reveal itself.”

Can you imagine being in something so awful as a concentration camp and still having the faith to know that God is there as sure as you know the sun is there?

The best news is that we have assurance in a present God, who is even MORE dependable than the mountains and the sun. Scripture says:

“Though the mountains be shaken
    and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
    nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
    says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
Isaiah 54:10 NIV

And when God feels silent, we can remember that He is not: He speaks to us through His Word! Let us remember that even when we think He is hidden, we have assurance that God is ALWAYS there!

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado