These two things constitute our assurance: to see the gospel is true, and to have a realisation of the love of God for you. You can keep this assurance alive when you meditate on Calvary and you think of Christ’s suffering and death for you, bearing away your punishment of sin. You say to yourself, ‘How far he went to show his love for us!’ and it kindles within you, and the Holy Spirit will augment it, a realisation of the love of God for his people, for you, for me.
And then you think of your illumination, what a gift. It is an expression of the love of God for you. And you think of God’s dealings with you and every answered prayer and all his interventions and see them as an expression of the love of God towards you. And you keep that sense of the love of God alive in your heart.