Is it well with you?
Today’s news consists of impending dread for the future, a future of uncertainty. News constantly assails us by site or by word of uncertain and deep economic and environmental concerns worldwide. Horrifying news pop up continually about slayings and mass murders, religious terrorism and the rise of shootings in schools. There is talk of wars and rumors of wars upon that. News of death and diseases and famine. News of nations rising up nuclear weapons and a looming dread of possible nuclear war yet again. The death of loved ones. News of the death of the young and old. News of crime and hostility, hate and anger. News of financial troubles, persecutions, hate, slander, insolence. Yet the minds of science, technology, entertainment try desperately to divert our thoughts into thinking things will be all right, but reality , what we see and hear reveals to us the grim dark reality of life that neither science nor religion without Christ can heal. World religions offer to help in trying to busy people into doing “righteous works” to gain happiness but fall flat and many are disillusioned and abandon such things, and at worse people turn to become embittered towards them. Millions pour into churches to hear the things that will tickle their ear – yet they go out of them empty and disheartened.
It was Horatio Spafford, during the height of the Industrial Age, who had lost his daughters to the depths of the sea, yet he proclaimed “It is well with my soul.”
How can this be?
This hymn was written after several traumatic events in Spafford’s life. The first was the death of his only son in 1871 at the age of four, shortly followed by the great Chicago Fire which ruined him financially. Then in 1873, he had planned to travel to Europe with his family on the SS Ville du Havre, but sent the family ahead while he was delayed on business concerning zoning problems following the Great Chicago Fire. While crossing the Atlantic, the ship sank rapidly after a collision with a sea vessel, the Loch Earn, and all four of Spafford’s daughters died. His wife Anna survived and sent him the now famous telegram, “Saved alone . . .”. Shortly afterwards, as Spafford traveled to meet his grieving wife, he was inspired to write these words as his ship passed near where his daughters had died.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Spafford)
Hear his words.
_When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Refrain:
It is well, with my soul,
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._
written by Horatio Spafford who
Christ never promises life to be pain free and easy, contrary to some modern-day preachers.
He never promises “Our best life now” – this is a lie from those who get rich off of people flocking to gain peace, but not Christ.
In fact here is what Jesus declares,
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
So who do you really trust these days? Who is right? who is wrong?
The insurance of salvation by God is a done deal, it will never be broken, or tampered with and will never fail.
However, our assurance of that insurance usually wavers.
The real peace comes from Christ in that we are at peace with God when we are saved by Christ alone. When we are at peace with the one whom we were enemies with before, that is the ultimate peace that is beyond understanding.
Jesus reassures those who are His with this “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34)
The reason we are at war, that we are enemies with God is because we have broken his Laws. All of us have. We’ve all lied, stolen, blasphemed, dishonored our parents and therefore dishonored God. We have not set aside any day, much less one, to commemorate a day of rest to focus on God – the exact day doesn’t matter as Paul says, but we haven’t even done that because we are so busy with our lives, we tend to care less about God. We have lusted after others and lusted after other’s things. We deserve hell and wrath.
Yet in all our ungodly behavior, while our sins run deep in our veins, Christ died for the ungodly. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8).
God did this alone and on his own initiative. No one forced him to. No one prompted him to. It is the love of God alone that drove Christ to the cross. He laid down his life, no one took it from him without his consent. It was not suicide. He is living now waiting patiently in this time of mercy before God pours out His wrath on the world. His death was necessary because that is what it had to take to clear the debt of sin we owe. A debt we could never pay.
It is well with the souls who put their faith and trust in Christ Jesus. It is NOT well with the souls of those who hate Christ, and not well with the souls of those who reject Him.
We often here the words “Peace on earth, goodwill toward men” but rarely does the world look at the whole of that phrase which is usually cut off.
It says this “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:14)
On, whom his favor rests! That means – those Christ is going to save.
A Christian is not better than anyone else. They are just saved by the one who did the saving.
A Christian is likened to a dead corpse floating in the water, yet hauled in and given life again by the Creator Himself. That is all a Christian is – a sinner whom God had favor with, whom he saved by the act of Christ on that glorious cross.
That is what is so marvelous about the grace of God. He has grace, He has mercy on the spiritually dead, wretched, hell-bound sinner. That is pure love, to be able to take what was dead and say “I alone am going to give that person life”.
There is no way to earn one’s way to Heaven as many world religions teach. That is folly. Because we are dead in our transgression of the Law of God. (Ephesians 2:5).
Only the breath of Creator God can bring a dead sinner back to life and live in Christ.
Jesus says in John 4:14 “but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
It doesn’t mean that a saved person, a formerly dead one-spiritually, has an easy road in life, as Horatio new well. No, it means that their soul is certainly well – they are at peace with God through Christ Jesus.
That is what true Christianity is. Not of works, or acts. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
It is indeed well with my soul.
Is it well with yours?
