Blessed Assurance

This is the song I named this blog after. Blessed Assurance! A line from this hymn is: "Watching and waiting, looking above." Well... and it goes on. Let me just show you the whole hymn, really read it if you would... the words are such a prayer.

 

Blessed Assurance

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

Refrain:
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long;
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
Angels, descending, bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

Perfect submission, all is at rest,
I in my Savior am happy and blest,
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

 

This hymn is by Fanny Crosby. She was quite a lady. I first learned about her when looking at this hymn at camp training a month or so ago. Let me give you a snippet about her, courtesy of Wikipedia ;).

Fanny Crosby "was an American lyricist best known for her Protestant Christian hymns. A lifelong Methodist, she was one of the most prolific hymnists in history, writing over 8,000 despite becoming blind shortly after birth. Also known for her preaching and speaking, during her lifetime Fanny Crosby was one of the best known women in the United States."

That's right - Fanny Crosby was blind. And she wrote over eight thousand hymns. Wow. This one I happen to like, but there are many more well known hymns. When I looked up Ms. Fanny's name in the back of a hymnbook, there were so many more hymns than listed for most writers! She also was married to a blind musician who insisted she keep her original surname. They had a daughter... but she died as a baby. Yet in her hymns she expresses great contentment in the Lord. When she was only eight years old, she wrote these verses:

 

Oh what a happy soul I am,

Although I cannot see;

I am resolved that in this world

Contented I will be.

How many blessings I enjoy,

That other people don't;

To weep and sigh because I'm blind,

I cannot, and I won't.

I don't know a ton about Fanny Crosby, but I know I wish I could've met her. She strikes me as someone who would inspire faith and help Christians who came in contact with her on with their walk with God.