It is Well - Will Tyler

Spafford, Suffering, and Sovereignty

Horatio Spafford had it all. He had great wealth from his job as a lawyer. He had owned many properties accumulating more and more wealth. He had 5 children and a beautiful wife he loved dearly. He was a well to do Christian man and everyone around him respected and liked him. However, his life of ease was soon to be taken from him. Despite his righteousness, his 4-year-old son, whom he loved dearly, died due to scarlet fever. While still grieving their son, all Horatio’s properties burned down in the great Chicago fire. Despite his loss, he tried to care for others who suffered in the fire. When he realized how all this suffering was affecting his family, he arranged for them all to go on a vacation to visit their friend D.L Moody, a famous evangelist, and perhaps go with him on a ministry crusade. However, right before the trip, Horatio was called about a business emergency and stayed home, just for a couple extra days while his wife and daughters set sail for England. Their ship never would make it to England. Their boat collided with another, killing 226 passengers. At the time it was the biggest naval disaster ever (40 years later the titanic would become the largest naval disaster). Horatio read the news one morning to find that the Ville du Havre (the ship his family was on) had collided with the Lock Earn. During this time, he feared that all his family was dead. Later he received a telegram from his wife in England telling him that she alone had survived. He immediately went and bought a ticket to England and boarded a boat. While sailing to England, the captain told the deck that the area they were passing was the area where the Ville du Havre sank. It was at this moment that Horatio got the idea and eventually penned the words for the now famous hymn “It is well with my soul.” When you read the words in the light of this man’s experience, you hear the voice of a faithful man caught in suffering and struggle. It reads:

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.

Though Satan should buffet, though 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—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 the 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.

Horatio only had his wife left, and yet his faith never wavered. They eventually had three more children, but one of these children died at the age of 2. They moved to Jerusalem and cared for the people there, even to this day their descendants have carried on the Spafford’s Children’s Center.

I have heard this story numerous times and I always question how can a man have such peace? When his children have all died, when his revenue has literally been burned in flames, when he has served the Lord for the course of his life and pain, suffering, and tears are his only apparent award, how does he still have the peace to say, “it is well with my soul?” I think of my own life and all the times I’ve suffered. Has “it is well with my soul” been my first response, or was anger or anxiety the first thing to creep into my mind? How can I experience suffering like Horatio does?

Firstly, Horatio remembers who His Saviour is. We see this in the second verse of his song, “And hath shed His own blood for my soul.” Despite all the horrors he had to live through he could have peace because he knew what Christ had done for him. He knew that everything he had was given to him by God, and therefore he could say it is well with my soul when everything was taken from him. He knew that God was still good and precious despite his suffering.

Secondly, Horatio saw that we are not good so that God will bless us. Horatio didn’t sing about his own virtuous actions and then complain that God was not blessing him. Rather, Horatio choose to focus on how good God was. This is the failure of Job’s friends in the story of Job. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar all claimed that Job was suffering due to some secret sin, and if he apologized, he would be restored his fortune and health. But suffering isn’t always a punishment for something we’ve done wrong. Sometimes suffering is simply due to the sin in the world, or part of God’s will, or a testing of our faith (more on this later). Now sometimes it is a result of

sin. If one drinks too much alcohol and gets drunk, then they can accept that the hangover they receive is a physical punishment for my sin. But to say that good people will have easy lives and the wicked will always suffer hard lives is simply not true. Rather most times it is quite the opposite. We have to remember that as Christians that we strive to be holy not so that God will bless us, rather we strive to be holy because we love God. As the children of God, we show our love of God by obeying Him, Jesus even says in John 14:15 “If you love me, keep my commands.” So when bad things happen to you, don’t try to show God all the good things you’ve done and ask why he would allow suffering to someone with your resume. After all, you are a sinner, so all those good works mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. Rather, when bad things happen, remember to continue to do good works so that you can be faithful in loving God, not so that good things will happen to you. Just as we are not saved by good works, we are not rewarded for good works. We are only saved by Jesus’ death on the cross and we are only blessed by the mercy of the Father.

Thirdly, when suffering, remember who gives you strength to endure suffering. Consider what Paul wrote in Philippians 4:11-13, “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” We can have faith God will help us endure the suffering even if it feels like it is so much more than we could ever bear. In faith, we can trust that the Holy Spirit will be giving us peace and rest though the waves crash around us.

Fourthly, we must remember that we live in a broken world. Due to the fall, death and therefore suffering, has become part of our reality. Although we are saved and redeemed by

the blood of Jesus, we still live in a world that has yet to be fully restored. Sometimes our suffering is because of the sin in the world and the nature of the enemy.

Fifth, remember that all things must happen by the will of God. Even the worst things have been allowed, consider the story of Job, Satan in this story has to literally ask God to be allowed to harm Job (Job 1: 9-12). No one is ending up in heaven unexpected and unannounced, the Father knows when one is coming home. The Father, who knows what is in each one’s heart, allows sinners to sin, not because He doesn’t know the consequences, but because the souls of His children need to be found and sanctified through testing. Look at the Parable of the weeds and the wheat which reads:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.”

God knows if each one is weed or wheat, but He chooses to work in the world in such a way that He will not lose any of His wheat. He is not a Father who would leave any of His children behind. In the same way the testing of Job isn’t a test for God, God already knows how Job will react and respond. Rather the testing is to show Satan how loyal Job is to God. If your outlook on the pain and suffering that you must endure, was that God planned for you to go through this so that you would grow your love for Him, would you not face it better? If your outlook on suffering was, I get to prove to Satan through these trials that I belong to God, how would you face trials? Look at the Israelites wandering to their new home, constantly complaining to God about His will to bring them into the promised land. Notice how Joshua and

Caleb knew that this journey was God’s will, so they didn’t complain but rather had faith and trusted. However, the rest complained about their suffering. They complained about the food, the water, the enemies around them, and the leadership of Moses. When you accept that your suffering fits into God’s glorious plan, we can refuse to complain, for we know where we fit and why what is happening is happening. We can be Joshua and Caleb and enter the promised land because we trusted that the long journey was God’s will and love for us. They could look at each step, each growling of the belly, each time they felt dryness in their throat over the span of 40 years and say it was worth it, for I accomplished God’s will. The other Israelites looked at each step, each growling of the belly, each time they felt dryness in their throat, and accepted that God was not good, instead they wished that they could live and die in Egypt. When you can accept your suffering and trials as the will of God, you can than learn to respect your struggles for the meaning that they have in them.

In suffering, it is important that we are still responsible to act as Christ call us to. We have no excuse to act immorally. Some would say that what you do in hard times may even reveal more about who you really are than when times are easy. I pray that when you go through times of suffering, that you would be able to say “it is well with my soul.”