Blessed Assurance

"Blessed Assurance" was written by Fanny Jane Crosby in 1873, the most prolific hymn writer in history, who composed over 8,000 hymns despite being blind from infancy due to a doctor's error. Crosby lost her sight at six weeks old when a quack applied a hot poultice to her eyes during an illness, but she never expressed bitterness, once saying, "If I had a choice, I would still choose to remain blind, for when I die, the first face I will ever see will be the face of my blessed Saviour." The hymn was born when her friend, the wealthy socialite and musician Phoebe Palmer Knapp, played a new melody on the piano and asked, "What does this tune say?" Crosby listened and immediately replied, "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!" The words flowed almost instantly — a testimony to both her gift and her deep personal faith. The hymn's joyful confidence — "This is my story, this is my song, praising my Saviour all the day long" — has made it one of the most beloved expressions of Christian assurance ever written.