All who believe on the Lord Jesus and put their trust in him can have “blessed assurance”. It just may be the most important subject we can discuss.
1 John 5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
John 6:47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
The word translated "believeth" (KJV) is a continuous tense word. In other words, if you continue to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ can be assured that he/she has everlasting life.
As long as we are steadfast in the faith we are assured of our eternal life.
1 John 2:24 Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
We had, for a little while, a very fine friar (ask for definition and I will provide). A Polack, a plow-horse of a man, and a very good thinker. He and I taught together a little and talked together a lot. And I told him about my efforts here.
He said, "Ah! Bottom line Christianity."(You have to imagine the Dracula accent.)
Here's what I think he meant. It's related to what I struggled to express in my post about not being tacky.
When I pray, when I think of Jesus, I just don't think about what WILL happen.
Fr. Jacek would always say, "Eet is AWL about the Pairsonal Encounter weeth Christ!"
(I love this guy. I wrote a talk to give to my brothers and sister lay Dominicans and he said, "Eess a piece of crap," when I showed it to him. So I rewrote the whole thing, and I thanked him for holding my feet to the fire. He bowed to me!)
But what he said describes my "piety" (no, NOT ees a piece of crap!,though that may be true too.)
Look. How can I say this and convey the idea? In our 'ritual' there comes a time when the priest breaks the bread and we all say the "Agnus Dei"(again, ask if you need details.) My personal prayer at that time is this:
Lord Jesus, break my heart, for I trust that if you break it, you will mend it, and fill it with yourself, than whom I desire no one and nothing more.Your side is right in this. The lover wants a commitment and wants to make a commitment. So we want to hear our beloved pledge herself to us forever.
But in the throes of love, we MAKE commitments. We do not ask for them (though we are happy to hear them). I am, so to speak, too busy loving my Lord right here and now to think about tomorrow. I want him to know that I am his and my trust and hope is in him.
WHATEVER my fate, right now I love Him. This moment fills my mind.
And this plays into our not talking, our being almost embarrassed to talk about "blessed assurance". "I am my beloved's, and he is mine." Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.