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.
How often do we think about what we sing? I love singing, mostly when no one is around. But at times, I don’t realize what I am actually saying. Horatio Spafford wrote “It Is Well with My Soul” out of the most heart wrenching moments of his life.
He was a successful young businessman, who had a wonderful wife and five children. He lost all of his fortune in the great Chicago fire of 1871. He then lost his son to pneumonia. Sometime later, his wife and four daughters were on a ship bound for Europe; along their voyage, their ship wrecked and the only survivor of the family was Mrs. Spafford.
Her telegraph to her husband read “Saved alone, what shall I do?” Horatio was on the next ship out to be with his grieving wife. As he was nearing the place where his daughters went down, he wrote the song “It Is Well with My Soul.”
How can a person, who lost almost everything, be able to say that it is well with his soul? Only God could have calmed his soul to truly accept his lot in life with peace. I have recited these words over some not so great times in my own life, and it has given me peace.
All because of how great my God is. In Philippians 4:7 he promises that “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Vita Argirov
