It Is Well With My Soul

Ps.146:1 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul!

There is a song by this title,"It is well with my soul" that I was reminded of this morning by a lady who lost her husband to the recent tornadoes. She recounted the story behind the song, written by a man, who had lost his four daughters to a tragic accident. Horatio Gates Spafford wrote this song as he and his wife were on a ship that was passing near the place where his four daughters had perished during a cruise that ended because the ship was hit by another ship and sank. Earlier they had lost their only son to scarlet fever. During the great Chicago fire, Spafford lost vast real estate investments.

It Is Well With My Soul by Horatio Gates Spafford

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul. Refrain: It is well, with my soul, It is well, it is well, with my soul. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control, That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul. My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul! For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live: If Jordan above me shall roll, No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul. But, Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait, The sky, not the grave, is our goal; Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord! Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul! And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll; The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, Even so, it is well with my soul. Can you have this peace? Yes you can, Christ gives this peace! He is there for you and will never leave you! Yes, we will praise His name even in death! For He is our Lord! We will praise his name even in sickness! For He is our Lord! In hard financial times, we will still praise His name! For He is our Lord! 1 Pet.1:6-7 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Why do we suffer? Is it something we did? Or is it just the fact that we live in a fallen world? Sin causes heartache, that is why we should hate sin and flee from it! John 9:1-3 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. God will use our test of faith to teach us. James 1:2-3 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. We can console each other by sharing our faith as we walk through trials. 2 Cor.1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. So you see, a man who suffered the loss of his children and his vast investments back in the eighteen hundreds can share his trials with us today through a song. Just as Job, in the Old Testament, never cursed God when he lost everything but praised Him with his every breath. We, who have faith in the Lord, can say"It is well with my soul"! Lord, I pray for Your tender mercies to fall on Your servants. Give us peace that the world can't understand. Let them look at us and say  "How can we get that peace". We will tell them of the hope we have in You! Amen