My daughter Bekah sent me the link to this devotional by Tori Kelly the other day, because she knows Horatio Spafford's hymn "It Is Well With My Soul" is one of my favorites. I opened it, read it, felt there was much honest transparency and biblical truth in it, and therefore thought I would pass it along to you. I trust it will encourage and speak to you as well. Enjoy.
SOUL’S
ANTHEM (IT IS WELL)
Suffering
is guaranteed in this life. The devil is always throwing fiery darts at us.
Right now in this moment he’s trying to attack my family, my health, my
relationships, and my peace. He’ll do anything to take my eyes off of
Jesus. He wants to take everything away from me, and most importantly, he
wants to take my faith.
Our
faith is not grounded in our circumstances. Neither can our joy in Christ
be. Recently, my grandfather passed away in the time I felt I needed him
most. I felt like I had lost my best friend. It was so painful to go
through and I cried so much -- until my eyes had nothing left. But
through every tear, God was with me in those hard moments. I could still be in
a dark and lonely place, and even be mourning, but my joy could not be stolen
because it is secured in Jesus. No matter what happens, no matter what
arrows are thrown my way, no matter how dark it gets, I know I will be
okay. It’s not always easy to believe, but I know that when I remind
myself that God is in control I find rest and am able to sing, “it is well with
my soul.”
Most
importantly, I can always sing “it is well” because God spoiled the movie for
us and we get to know how this story ends. “It is well with my soul” because
there is a place called heaven where death will be no more, every tear will be
wiped away, and any tears shed in this life will be redeemed (he has bottled
each one).
Maybe
your suffering is different than losing a grandfather. Maybe it’s worse. Maybe
it’s as bad as the writer of “It is Well” who lost his entire family in the days
prior to when he penned this hymn. Even still, God says all of it
is not even worthy to be compared to the glory to come to us. Like
an adult reflecting on his experience in kindergarten, so believers in heaven
will remember their suffering in this life, saying, “Oh yeah... I think
I vaguely remember...”
Suffering
comes to each of us in a different way - broken relationships, physical
illness, economic hardships, loss, crime, slander, betrayal, depression,
humiliation, you name it. Scripture assures us of this. Jesus assures his
disciples of this. "In this world you WILL have
trouble (tribulations). But take heart! I have overcome the
world" (John 16:33). Jesus never promises us a
trouble-free life in this world. His promised overcoming of the world means, as
Tori Kelly rightly points out, we already know how the story ends! Jesus
is the Victor! It's already a done deal! God has won! The
world loses! And we get to be over-comers with him in the victory
he's already won!
John
16:33 was spoken prior to the cross and
resurrection. Yet it is spoken in the past tense - "I have
overcome..." It is spoken before the cross an resurrection, but
with as much confidence and assurance in the promise as if those those things
had already taken place! (If only they had truly "heard"
him!) In fact, in a very real sense the cross had already taken place, as
John assures us in Revelation 13:8, where it speaks of Jesus as, "the
Lamb slain from the creation of the world." Jesus' ultimate
victory of overcoming the world had already been decreed and determined and
worked out in the providence of God before God ever created the world!
And we get to rejoice and participate in many of the benefits of that victory
in this life (not all of them just yet), remembering as Paul assures us, "Our
light and momentary trials are achieving for us an eternal glory that far
outweighs them all" (I Corinthians 4:17).
Resting
in the victory of God until the promise becomes our experienced reality in
eternity, Pastor Jeff
