Blessed Assurance

Although blinded by an illness when she was just a baby, Fanny Crosby never became bitter. In fact, she believed that her blindness was a blessing.

Born on this day in 1820, she once wrote how it seemed that God had “intended . . .that I should be blind all my life.” Rather than complaining, she thanked Him, to the point that she said she would not accept sight if it were “offered me tomorrow.”

She realized that her blindness had become a gateway to praising God. She said, “I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me.” She went on to write more than 8,000 hymns.

When she died at the age of 95, her tombstone was inscribed with words from perhaps her most beloved hymn: “Blessed assurance.” For her, knowing Jesus was “a foretaste of glory divine.”

She had incredible peace and rich spiritual insights. She could write, “Perfect submission, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight; angels descending bring from above, echoes of mercy, whispers of love.”

Praise was so important to her that this is how she summarized her life: “This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior, all the day long.”

You may feel that you face overwhelming problems, but God does not want you to complain, worry, or be bitter. Learn from Fanny Crosby’s example and fill your heart with God’s praises. Know that God loves you, and He has a plan for your life. You can be confident in Him, knowing that He wants you to have His peace, assurance, and blessing.

No matter what you are going through, fill your life with praises for your Savior. Make this your story and your song.