Assurance

I currently have the cheapest health insurance and car insurance that it is possible to have, meaning that if anything ever does happen, I'm going to have a pretty big deductible. That's okay with me. I'd rather save my money myself than rely on insurance to take care of me. Of course, when it comes right down to it, I'm not depending on my savings or my IRA either. Because there is one inherent flaw with that kind of insurance against disaster, namely that it relies on what I do.

The very word insurance implies that I must take some kind of step beforehand to ensure that I am taken care of if or when a disaster happens. And no matter how well I plan, there is no way I will ever be able to take every possibility into account. If I were capable of such a task, I have the feeling I would spend my time being so cautious and worried about what might happen that I would forget completely about living.

Wonderfully for me (and all of you), this isn't the way salvation works. God doesn't insure us against future disaster. Salvation isn't a contract of, "I give you this much, and you give me this much if such and such occurs under these given circumstances." If it were, I would, once again, be driven to madness by the worry of what might happen in the future. I mean, what if my premium isn't paid in full when I suddenly get hit by a bus? I know for sure the bill would bankrupt my eternity.

God doesn't deal in insurance. Instead, he has given assurance of salvation through the death and resurrection of his son, and in his sending of the Holy Spirit. Assurance, unlike insurance, does not require action on my part aside from acceptance. To assure someone, means to remove all doubt from their mind, to promise that what is hoped for will happen. A promise. From God. There isn't anything more solid than that. So I can rest in peace, knowing that even if and when the worst (illness, persecution or loss) does happen, I have the assurance of my God that he will take care of me, whether or not (more likely, not) I've met my deductible.

"Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full of assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of faith without wavering, for he who promised is faithful." Hebrews 10:19-23