A week ago as I was journaling, the words blessed assurance found their way onto the page. I must admit that those weren’t the first words that spilled out. Words like “broken heart, bleeding out and brokenness” came first.
God is so good not to leave us hanging onto words that highlight our mess, but instead, He points us back to what He believes about us.
Journaling is a sacred act for me. Many times, worship music plays in the background as I freely let God direct my words. On that particular day, God spoke truth in the way He does best. Instead of scolding me like an angry parent, He gently let my words change from what I believed to what He knows. Nothing but love filled the page. Whispers of grace floated in the background.
Moving from a broken heart to blessed assurance was all Jesus.
Words of love washed over the page. Reminders of how one sacrifice two thousand years ago was all because of love. Truth woven in grace and questions for me to dig deeper. Together they all pointed me to me: a daughter of the King, His chosen one, His beloved.
Jesus spoke these words:
My heart breaks for you. I bled out on the cross for you because I love you deeply. Your brokenness becomes whole in me. When you feel you can’t go on or life is not what you imagined, you still have the best waiting for you. Do you believe? Do you see all I am doing? Will you walk in the waiting knowing that the other side is almost within your reach?
I need daily time with Jesus to set my heart straight. Journaling is a holy habit that provides a way for God to enter into my day. I love how He teaches me and knows I have so much more to learn. It is a daily revisiting of my heart and soul as I embrace Jesus over and over again.
Jesus left me with these words ad I pray they speak to you too:
In everything you do, let blessed assurance be the call of your heart. Dream with blessed assurance. Love with blessed assurance. Wait patiently with blessed assurance and rest in the knowledge that I am with you always.
I will leave you with these words from Matthew 5, the Beatitudes:
“You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought. -Matthew 5:5, MSG
“You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. -Matthew 5:8, MSG
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I wrote a series on the Beatitudes using the Message version a year ago. You can catch up on the series HERE.
You are blessed, beloved and chosen. Rest in this truth and the blessed assurance that only comes from God.
Sabbath Blessings,
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Such beautiful comfort, Mary. From a broken heart to love and blessed assurance in Jesus. Thank you! Love and hugs to you!
You’re welcome! May you feel God’s blessed assurance this week!
Thank you for the reminder of how sweet journaling is. I’ve been doing it for almost 20 years. I feel that the Lord interacts with me in similar ways when I journal. I pray that you continue to sense a blessed assurance as you turn to Him in your journaling and in a season of having a broken heart.
Twenty years? Wow! I journal off and on but seeing how much fruit is produced when I do is spurring me on to doing it more often. Thank you for your sweet words today.
Yes, journaling is a ‘holy habit’ as you so beautifully wrote, Mary. In some ways I’m sorry I’ve let it go along the way.
But it seems to be resurrecting itself in late evenings in the form of a gratitude journal. I’m kind of wondering what God’s inviting me to …
A gratitude journal sounds like the perfect thing. I can’t wait to hear what God teaches you about your own journaling. Blessings!
One of my favorite hymns is Blessed Assurance. I recently started Bible journaling and I love it!
When I first started this post, I thought I was going to write about the song “Blessed Assurance” and the person who wrote it. But God had other plans. I pray you learn a lot from your own journaling time.
Dear Mary,
Thank you for these beautiful thoughts from your journaling time today. Isn’t it amazing how He moves through the words that He draws out from the deep places of our hearts? I love this especially: “Moving from a broken heart to blessed assurance was all Jesus.” His love is so great for us, and we so easily forget it. What a precious Lord who keeps bringing us His Blessed Assurance! Hugs & Love to you!
It is amazing! I know you have learned so much through your own journaling. I need to give myself the gift of writing in this form more often. And isn’t it so reassuring to know that we can move from brokenness to blessed assurance through Jesus. Hugs to you too!
I love those message versions of the scripture you chose to share today. The message that when we are content, then we can see the outside world. Jesus was content in all His circumstances allowing to be other focused, to see where the present was bringing Him to serve. May your day an embraced-filled Jesus day, Mary! Thank you for this teaching.
I do too. I wrote a series on the Beatitudes and learned so much about myself by doing that. Being content is an area many of us have difficulty with. Jesus made it look so easy. Blessed you stopped by today.
Oh how I love these Words from the Beautitudes in the Message version. Thank you for taking me back to them. Returning and resting in His blessed assurance. So beautifully sweet.
I’m Journaling my way through Leana Tankersley’s Brazen and Bonnie Gray’s Whispers of Rest. And I love how God is weaving the Scriptures I am reading each day into what these books are looking at.
Today, I chose an image of nontraditional beauty and wrote about why it is so beautiful to me (Chapter 8, Brazen). And it gave me such beautiful imagery of God’s love, mercy and Presence. I chose the waves of the ocean, uncovering what I so love about God there – His control in our lack of control, His calling to lift up our hearts and pour them back out in all honesty, His purity of white that is revealed in the crashing of the waves of our hearts, His moment-by-moment leading of our hearts to return and rest in Him, the saltiness of His love and presence in us making us come alive, the rushing and crashing and returning and predictable and again and again and trustworthy sound of His Voice in us. It mirrored so much of the Word He has spoken to me lately.
This is so beautiful. God seems to have so much to teach you. I know He is doing a similar thing in me. What a blessing you are to Him and to others.