It Is Well.

Horatio Spafford was a wealthy lawyer who lived in Chicago in the mid-1800s. He and his wife Anna had five children, a son and four daughters. Mr. Spafford was also a very successful businessman; his family was well-known in their community for their wealth but also for their faith. By all accounts, the Spaffords lived a charmed life. But when their son was only four years old, they lost him to scarlet fever. One year later, a great fire in the heart of downtown Chicago destroyed most of Mr. Spafford's business and properties; much of the family wealth was lost. The Spaffords decided to take their four daughters and set sail for a holiday in England in order to "get away" from the heartache of losing their son/brother and the hardship that followed the fire. The family traveled to New York to catch the ocean liner that would take them across the Atlantic. As it turned out, a last minute business meeting kept Mr. Spafford from boarding the liner with the rest of his family; he would catch another one and meet up with them in England.

Nine days after his wife and four daughters set sail for England, Mr. Spafford received a telegram from Anna with two words written, "saved alone." On November 2 1873, the ocean liner that the ladies Spafford were on collided with another English vessel. Anna fought to hold onto her daughters as the ship sank; she later said that her last memory before she passed out on top of some floating debris was that of having her daughter ripped from her hands by a rough wave. Anna was saved but Mr. Spafford's daughters all lost their lives that day. Upon hearing the news, Mr. Spafford boarded the next available ocean liner to England to be with Anna. As he was crossing over the same spot in the Atlantic where his daughters all drowned, he penned these words:

When peace like a river attendeth my way, 

When sorrows like sea billows roll,

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well with my soul.

Thou Satan should buffet, thou trials should come, 

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, 

And hath shed His own blood for my soul!

My sin, O 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!

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!

It is well with my soul!

It is well with my soul!

It is well, it is well with my soul!

A favorite Oswald Chambers quote of mine says that "faith is not understanding. It is total commitment to Jesus Christ." I believe that we never really know how strong our faith in the Sovereign Lord truly is until it is tested. It is during the trials of our lives that we find out what we're truly made of; it is during those times that the Lord clothes us in His strength and we are given yet another opportunity to open our eyes to His boundless mercy and grace.

I believe that another reason that we are allowed to go through trials of all sorts is so that we might learn to "walk by faith." Placing full confidence in God and in His goodness and choosing to walk by faith rather than by feeling brings much glory to God. It also changes us more into Jesus' image - it's sanctification at its best! Obviously sanctification and walking by faith are sometimes painful. But God is still sovereign over that pain and as His children we are called to be obedient, even in the midst of hardship.

One way that the Lord has been teaching me lately to be obedient and to walk by faith is to thank Him for the trials that arise in my life. Before you read more, let me assure you that I do not have this discipline down pat by any means! I am much quicker to question God and to cry over my struggles than I am to thank Him for them and try to find the rainbow through the rain. Nevertheless, He is still faithful to mold me and teach me and lead me, and my heart is being molded ever more into His likeness.

Hebrews 13:15 says, "By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name." What does it mean to offer a "sacrifice" of praise? This is the lesson that the Lord has laid on my heart to blog about tonight. Thanksgiving becomes a sacrifice when in the midst of our pain and disappointment, we affirm His goodness. We delight the heart of God when we thank Him in the midst of our trials and choose to walk by faith in His goodness and His sovereign plan. To thank Him even for the pain and for the lesson that He is teaching us through that pain is to bring glory to His name; it illustrates to the world a love and commitment and hope and trust in a God who is absolutely deserving of all of that and so much more! Faith in the midst of pain - this is the kind of faith that pleases our Lord. But it comes at a price to us; it costs us our right to doubt, worry, fret...we exchange our fleshly habits for steadfast faith and embrace the pain, knowing full-well that the hand of the Creator of the universe is behind that pain. Thus, the writer of Hebrews terms this a "sacrifice" of praise.

But why then, so many people will ask, does a caring and gracious God inflict pain on His children? Why can't He find another way to turn our hearts to Him and cause our faiths to grow? I do not know. Nor do I believe I am meant to know. I believe that that question is one of the ones that will just have to wait to be answered until I meet Jesus face to face. Until then, content that I'll never be able to answer that question this side of Heaven, I choose to rest in the character of God. He is good. All of His designs for my life are good. For this reason, just as Horatio Spafford chose to do so many years ago, I choose to praise Him, even in the midst of a storm. "For I know Whom I have believed..." 2 Timothy 1:12.

"There will be times when it will appear as though His promises fail you;

they don't seem to be answered in accordance with your expectation. 

During these times of testing, your faith must rest in who He says He is

rather than your understanding of what He has promised.

You are best served trusting His character."

-Walter Henrichsen