Whenever a major change in life catches me off-guard and I focus too much on loss, I try to re-frame it within the words of Isaiah who reminds us of God’s promise of rebirth. While I am not always successful, it is always encouraging to read the words of the Lord who said, “Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new!”
Through Isaiah, God reminds us, “It is I, I, who wipe out for my own sake, your offenses; your sins I remember no more.”
Whenever I read this Scripture passage, I think of that beautiful hymn, Blessed Assurance, for certainly, assured is what I feel when I hear God say, “Your sins I remember no more.”
There is an interesting story relayed in Ira David Sankey’s book, “My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns.” He writes, “‘During the recent war in the Transvaal,’ said a gentleman at my meeting in Exeter Hall, London, in 1900, ‘when the soldiers going to the front were passing another body of soldiers whom they recognized, their greetings used to be, ‘Four-nine-four, boys; four-nine-four,’ and the salute would invariably be answered with ‘six further on, boys; six further on.’
The significance of this was that in ‘Sacred Songs and Solos,’ a number of copies of the small edition of which had been sent to the front, number 494 was ‘God be with you until we meet again,’ and six further on that 494, or number 500, was ‘Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine.’”
We can always find assurance in the truth that Jesus is ours and will find his way to us by whatever means possible, even through coded messages and in spite of the bonds of death.
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