[Wednesday's Devotional] - It is well with my soul

As a huge geek and Marvel fan, super heroes are a favourite subject of conversation with me, but even more so than them I love talking about the real-life heroes people have.

 

Recently I added a new name to my list of real-life men and women I admire.  People that I would love to be more like in certain aspects.  The same way as a kid (and still as an immature adult) I would love to have super strength, this man left me wanting super faith.  His name is Horatio Spafford.

He is well known for writing the hymn, “It is well with my soul”, and maybe slightly less well known for the story behind it.  Horatio Spafford was a well-known lawyer in America who was virtually financially ruined by the great Chicago fire of 1871.  Two years later his family decided to go on a holiday to England, on which his wife and four daughters went ahead of him on an earlier ship. That ship crashed into another a ship and all 4 daughters perished.  When Horatio received the telegram “Saved Alone” from his wife, he left for England to join her. According to one of his daughters born after the tragedy it was on this journey he wrote the now famous hymn. To have the kind of faith that as you pass over the waters in which all 4 of your daughters drowned and write the 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.”

The thing that amazes me most is not only has he clung to his faith but he still sees through eyes of a heart that knows it is saved. 

“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls”. 1 Peter 1:8 [NIV]

 

This verse from Peter was one Horatio clearly knew through and though.  John Piper says of the song:

 

“No song quite gets it in terms of its cadence, its tune and especially its words, it doesn’t get any better than sorrowful and always rejoicing through it is well, it is well within my soul”.

 

This is the kind of faith I long to have, a faith that knows the truth, but more than that a faith that truly knows, with Christ, it is well, it is well, with my soul.

 

Tim Holt