It Is Well

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Hi I’m Christin Ditchfield and this is Take It To Heart!

 

Years ago, a businessman lost nearly everything he owned in a fire, right after his son died of scarlet fever. He felt his family needed a change of scene; he decided to take them to Europe. At the last minute he was detained by business, so he sent his family on ahead. Only a few days after they set sail, their ship collided with another vessel in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Horatio Spafford received word that only his wife had survived. All four of their girls had drowned. Spafford took the next available ship to England. He asked the captain to let him know when they passed the spot where his daughters had perished. Standing on the deck, looking out over water, Spafford realized he had a choice to make. He could rail against the injustice, he could throw a tantrum over the unfairness of all that he had suffered. Or he could affirm His faith in God’s goodness, in His love and mercy and grace – and declare his trust in Him, regardless of his circumstances. On a scrap of paper, he scribbled 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.

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.

 

Spafford’s focus shifted to the reality that because of what Jesus had suffered, we have the hope of Heaven, which there is no pain or suffering or loss, where we will be reunited with those who have gone on before us.

 

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

 

Spafford’s words have since challenged and inspired millions of believers to praise God in the midst of their own suffering and heartache, experiencing the powerful truth that “God inhabits the praises of His people” (Psalm 22:3 KJV) and that “the reality of His presence is greater than the reality of the hell around us.”1

 

 

(c) Christin Ditchfield, Take It To Heart Ministries, Inc., 2010.

 

 

 

1. Holocaust victim Betsie Ten Boom, quoted in The Hiding Place 35th Anniversary Edition by Corrie Ten Boom, Chosen Books, 2006.