It Is Well

“The righteous person faces many troubles, but the Lord comes to the rescue each time” Ps.34:19.

A wise man said, when you go through a challenging time, it can do one of three things:

#1. It can destroy you. But I am praying because Jesus is with you, it will not destroy you.

#2. It can define you. Some people after going through some challenges begin to see the world through the filter of that challenge. So the challenge defines them. But my prayer is that because Jesus is with you, it will not define you.

#3. It can develop you. I am praying every challenge you have go through and will go through, will actually develop you.

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all” Ps.34:19 [KJV]. When you have Jesus, you have everything. No matter what you are going through, no matter the pressure, God is with you and God is for you.

Horatio Spafford was a lawyer and a businessman based in Chicago in 19^th century. He was a very wealthy man. He supported the church. In fact, he was a major supporter of D.L Moody’s ministry. He built orphanages and he was a major supporter of the people that eradicated slave trade, even though he was white. He did a lot of good things. Horatio Spafford had four daughters and a son. In 1870, when his son was four years old, that was the year they had the great Chicago fire. And he lost everything he had to that fire because he was into real estate. That same year, his only son died. Two years later, he was supposed to go on a vacation with his family – his four daughters and his wife but he couldn’t go and so they left without him. And the famous telegram cable came back to him from his wife ‘saved alone, what shall I do?’ Which means the ship capsized, he lost his four daughters and only his wife escaped. So he got on a ship to meet his wife in Europe and console her. And as they sailed, a sailor pointed to him the very spot where the ship capsized and his daughters died. He was sailing over the grave of his daughters. That’s a huge burden for anybody to bear. But he sat down and penned some things in his journal. He wrote, “When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say and to know, it is well, it is well with my soul”. Some of us, in our whole life, may never experience one-tenth of this, Amen. Yet some of us may. But it’s funny how we lose just a pen and we say to God, ‘where are your angels?’ This is someone that lost everything and because Jesus is near, because of the assuring Presence of the risen Christ, he could say it is well with my soul.

Prayer: Father, as I put my faith in You, I ask that You reveal Yourself to me in a way that only You can. Many are the afflictions of the righteous but thank You for deliverance every time, in Jesus Name.