Blessed – Fanny – Assurance

“Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine” – Fanny Crosby (1873)

As someone who grew up in church, hymns formed an integral part of my church life. We sang one during the midweek services and sometimes two on Sundays. And back home from church, we kids in the compound would still go back to them. We’d gather around with as many hymnbooks as we could find – Sankey’s Sacred Songs & Solos, Deeper Life’s Gospel Hymns and Songs, the Anglican Communion’s Ancient and Modern, etc. and spend hours singing and comparing the compilations.

Nevertheless, like most church people back then, we never real thought on the wordings. As far as we were concerned, they were just melodious spiritual-ish things that ‘church people’ must sing and say during service.

It’s only recently that I began to actually read the words of the hymns and even research on the circumstances around them. In doing so, I discovered a treasure-trove of edifying Christian history and profound doctrinal depths.

One such hymn is the world famous “Blessed Assurance”, written by the equally famous and profoundly endearing songstress, FANNY CROSBY.

Blind from six weeks old, Fanny achieved in life what many sighted persons could never pull off. The first woman whose voice was heard publicly in the U.S. Senate Chamber at Washington, Fanny was an extraordinary and most prolific poet. She wrote over 9,000 hymns in her lifetime. Indeed, she had to write her hymns using not less than 40 different fake names to avoid her name appearing on every page in virtually every denomination’s hymnbook.

Songs of hers like, “To God be the glory, great things He hath done”, “Draw me nearer”, “Pass me not, O gentle Saviour”, etc. reveal a depth of spiritual intimacy and revelation that is lacking in many a sermon today.

From the very day she wrote the words of “Blessed Assurance”, Crosby’s words have provided comfort for millions of Christians in the face of fear, persecution, sorrow, and doubt. In spite of all the trials that may come, we know that we serve a Saviour who came to bring the Kingdom of God on earth, and as we serve Him, we participate in, and belong to, that Kingdom. We each play our own part in that “glorious foretaste” of what is still to come. We belong to Christ and his Kingdom – what an assurance this is!

You undoubtedly have said it countless times before, but say it again, this time with all intention and spiritual comprehension:

Blessed Assurance, JESUS IS MINE!

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN