Dave’s Monday Blast – May 4, 2020
Writing from a Roman prison, to the church community in Philippi (Philippians 4:4),
2 Corinthians 12:9 while ill with his “thorn in the flesh.” Clearly the Lord desires for us to experience great joy in spite of our circumstances; Scripture affirms this truth many times over. I am encouraged and admonished as I read these stories from the life of the Apostle Paul. I am reminded of the passage from 2 Timothy 3:16 & 17,
“ALL SCRIPTURE is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteous; to the end that I become more like Christ.”
Horatio G. Spafford was a prosperous lawyer and devout church member and elder. In 1871, he and his wife, along with their four daughters lived comfortably in Chicago until the city was nearly destroyed by what history remembers as the Great Chicago Fire. Perhaps as a consequence, his wife’s health took a turn for the worse. In an effort to prevent her from rapidly failing health, he arranged for an extended stay in France. At the last moment, however, he was detained by a real estate transaction, so his wife (her name was Anna), and their four daughters sailed for Paris on a steamship with Horatio scheduled to sail later. On November 21 of 1873 their ship was rammed by a British vessel and sank in twelve minutes. Anna was rescued, but all four daughters perished. Nine days later, she landed in Wales, and cabled to her husband, “Saved alone. What shall I do…”
The Denison Forum comments: “Horatio immediately left Chicago to bring his wife home. On the Atlantic crossing, the captain of his ship called Horatio to his cabin to tell him that they were sailing over the spot where his four girls had died. As he passed over their watery grave, he wrote the hymn, It is Well With My Soul. Max Lucado calls Spafford’s words, “the lyrics to a song that would become an anthem to the providence of God.” They are usually sung as a promise of serenity, an image the first line seems to suggest: “When peace like a river attendeth my way.” We picture a wide, slow-moving, tranquil river. But not what comes next: “When sorrow like sea billows roll.” Sea billows are waves that crest and crash, picturing sorrows that roll incessantly upon us. Despite such suffering, Spafford testifies, the Lord has taught him to say, ‘It is well with my soul!'”
Horatio Spafford knew what we can know today: our hope is in Jesus. Not in our present circumstances, but in His certain return. Not in where we are, but in who He is.
The Apostle Paul was an INTENTIONAL man of God. Horatio Spafford was an INTENTIONAL man of God. We know this to be true of them because in spite of their circumstances the Lord had taught them to say, “It is well with my soul.” May that be the honest cry of our heart today.
