Assurance

Psalm 95:1
O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord.
Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.

I was reading this passage in my devotional today and I was thinking about all the different metaphors Jesus uses for Himself, when I put some of them together I get the following picture:

Me standing in the cleft of the rock (Jesus is the rock), wearing the armour of light;

• the helmet of salvation - Jesus provides my salvation, 
• the breastplate of righteousness - Jesus is my righteousness,
• the belt of truth - Jesus is the truth,
• the shoes of preparedness to preach the gospel - the good news about Jesus,
• the shield of faith - faith that Jesus will keep His word, according to the great and mighty promises recorded in the Bible,
• and the sword of the spirit - the Bible, the Word of God and revelation of Jesus.

We are only given two tasks, (everything else is the how):
       1.  to proclaim God's goodness to us.
       2.  to stand firm, to resist and overcome temptation.

So with our feet planted firmly on the rock, our sure foundation we declare the wonders of God's mercy, forgiveness, love and redemptive, transformative powers. And when the winds come and the water rises and temptation tries to sweep us away we stand firm in the knowledge that God will not allow is to be snatched from His hand (John 10:28,29), that He will use His rod and His staff (Ps 23:4) to keep us in His way. (John 14:6)