It IsWell

It is easy to be happy and to proclaim “It Is Well With My Soul” when everything is going as expected but when adversity comes. can we then proclaim the same thing. It is certain that adversity will come if we live long enough, but God has tempered prosperity and adversity that we might really know where our strength lies. It is not of the earth but comes from above.  Solomon said, “In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.”  (Eccl. 7:14).  It might not be always well in our outward circumstances but within our soul can be well if we are looking to the eternal unseen things.

Our light affliction worketh for us a more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, but this only happens when we view the unseen rather than the seen.  Paul says this happens, “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”  (II Cor. 4:18).  The Shunammite woman finally had a child after years of barrenness, and that child grew and died in her arms. She hurriedly went to the prophet Elisha who had told her she would embrace this son whom she had just lost.  When she came, Elisha sent his servant to say unto her, “Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well.”  (II Kings 4:26).  The child was dead, she and her husband were grieving but she still was able (by the grace of God) to say “It is well.”

We find that when tragedy strikes we can still find reason to be thankful.  This is what Paul is teaching in I Thess. 5:18: “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”  We don’t jump up and down thanking the Lord for all our heartache and trouble, but it is God’s will that we give thanks, not “for” the trouble but “in” the trouble.  Just as in every trouble we can find reason to be thankful so in every thing we are to pray to our Heavenly Father.  Once again Paul says, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”  (Phil 4:6).

The circumstances surrounding the song “It Is Well With My Soul” and how it came to be written is given below which should make us all reflect about the goodness of God and how we need His mercy and grace.

This hymn was written by a Chicago lawyer, Horatio G. Spafford. You might think to write a worship song titled, ‘It is well with my soul’, you would indeed have to be a rich,  successful Chicago lawyer. But the words, “When sorrows like sea billows roll … It is well with my soul”, were not written during the happiest period of Spafford’s life. On the contrary, they came from a man who had suffered almost unimaginable personal tragedy.
Horatio G. Spafford and his wife, Anna, were pretty well-known in 1860’s Chicago. And this was not just because of Horatio’s legal career and business endeavors. The Spaffords were also prominent supporters and close friends of D.L. Moody, the famous preacher. In 1870, however, things started to go wrong. The Spaffords’ only son was killed by scarlet fever at the age of four. A year later, it was fire rather than fever that struck. Horatio had invested heavily in real estate on the shores of Lake Michigan. In 1871, every one of these holdings was wiped out by the great Chicago Fire.

Aware of the toll that these disasters had taken on the family, Horatio decided to take his wife and four daughters on a holiday to England. And, not only did they need the rest — DL Moody needed the help. He was traveling around Britain on one of his great evangelistic campaigns. Horatio and Anna planned to join Moody in late 1873. And so, the Spaffords traveled to New York in November, from where they were to catch the French steamer ‘Ville de Havre’ across the Atlantic. Yet just before they set sail, a last-minute business development forced Horatio to delay. Not wanting to ruin the family holiday, Spafford persuaded his family to go as planned. He would follow on later. With this decided, Anna and her four daughters sailed East to Europe while Spafford returned West to Chicago. Just nine days later, Spafford received a telegram from his wife in Wales. It read: “Saved alone.”

On November 2nd 1873, the ‘Ville de Havre’ had collided with ‘The Lochearn’, an English vessel. It sank in only 12 minutes, claiming the lives of 226 people. Anna Spafford had stood bravely on the deck, with her daughters Annie, Maggie, Bessie and Tanetta clinging desperately to her. Her last memory had been of her baby being torn violently from her arms by the force of the waters. Anna was only saved from the fate of her daughters by a
plank which floated beneath her unconscious body and propped her up. When the survivors of the wreck had been rescued, Mrs. Spafford’s first reaction was one of complete despair. Then she heard a voice speak to her, “You were spared for a purpose.” And she immediately recalled the words of a friend, “It’s easy to be grateful and good when you have so much, but take care that you are not a fair-weather friend to God.”

Upon hearing the terrible news, Horatio Spafford boarded the next ship out of New York to join his bereaved wife. Bertha Spafford (the fifth daughter of Horatio and Anna born later) explained that during her father’s voyage, the captain of the ship had called him to the bridge. “A careful reckoning has been made”, he said, “and I believe we are now passing the place where the de Havre was wrecked. The water is three miles deep.” Horatio then returned to his cabin and penned the lyrics of his great hymn.

The words which Spafford wrote that day come from 2 Kings 4:26. They echo the response of the Shunammite woman to the sudden death of her only child. Though we are told “her soul is vexed within her”, she still maintains that ‘It is well.” And Spafford’s song reveals a man whose trust in the Lord is as unwavering as hers was.

It would be very difficult for any of us to predict how we would react under circumstances similar to those experienced by the Spaffords. But we do know that the God who sustained them would also be with us.

No matter what circumstances overtake us may we be able to say with Horatio Spafford… “It Is Well With My Soul.”

May God give us grace to be more thankful and be able to say and mean it that “It is indeed well with my soul!”–February 21, 2013–Elder Larry Wise