Press the arrow to listen to Casting Crowns sing “I Am Yours” while reading today’s devotion about assurance.

Scripture
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. Romans 8:16

Observation
My relationship with Christ can become so very complicated. If the Bible were not enough, preachers and theologians weigh in and sometimes weigh down forward movement with complexities. But my relationship with God the Father, through Jesus Christ, does not get more basic than Romans 8:16. God’s Holy Spirit speaks to my human spirit and reminds me that I’m in the family.

Romans 8:16 is the pilot light inside of me. There may be many other fires to burn, but this little flame will start them all. One cannot heat a house with a pilot light, but then again one cannot start a fire without it. I peer into my gas fireplace and see the reassuring blue flame. I know that the device stands ready to spring into action.

I need to mind the Spirit’s pilot light in me. It isn’t a danger that the light will go out as much as it is that I will get so complicated that I will forget that it is there. Knowing, straight from the Holy Spirit, that I belong in the family of God is the most precious bit of information I can receive at any time. I must keep coming back to that. At moments like this, I recall the words of Karl Barth, the Swiss theologian who wrote his 14-volume theology. When asked what was the most profound thought in all of those books, he said, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

Application
When I call sinners to repentance, to cry out for mercy, to receive forgiveness, do I make the way too simple by just reciting a prayer? The radical Methodists of the 1730s would implore the penitent to persist in prayer until they had received Romans 8:16 and that they could testify that their light was burning.

And for me, does my walk become too complicated because I forget to check for my pilot light? There is great comforting in seeing that steady, blue flame. To be loved by the Father is all that I really need to know.

Prayer
Father, thank you for the light that is burning in my heart. I remember when it was first lit. You have never let it go out. I would like, even today, to see just such a light burn in someone who has never had a light burn in the cold, inner place before. Let my light shine, and let it attract someone to know you. Amen.