If. That little word should stop you cold. This is not something we can assume about everyone walking the earth. If you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. If.

That means there's a real possibility—a probability even—that some have never tasted God's grace at all. This is not some universal blessing handed out like candy at a parade. This is special mercy. Personal mercy. And you need to ask yourself: Do I actually know the grace of God by experience? Have I tasted it?

There is no spiritual blessing we should take for granted. Not one. Yes, this calls for serious, prayerful examination. But hear me clearly: no one should be content to live with an "if" hanging over their relationship with God. A holy distrust of yourself might raise the question. That's normal. But to let that doubt linger and fester? That would be evil indeed.

We must not rest without a desperate struggle to clasp the Savior in the arms of faith and say with Paul: "I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him."

Do not rest, O believer, until you have full assurance that you belong to Jesus. Let nothing satisfy you until the Holy Spirit himself bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God. Oh, trifle not here! Do not let your soul settle for "perhaps" and "peradventure" and "if" and "maybe."

Build on eternal verities, and verily build on them! Get the sure mercies of David, and surely get them! Drop your anchor behind the veil where Christ has gone, and see to it that your soul is chained to that anchor with a cable that will not break.

Advance beyond these dreary "ifs." Leave the wilderness of doubts and fears behind. Cross the Jordan of distrust, and enter the Canaan of peace, where the Canaanite still lingers, but where the land never ceases to flow with milk and honey.