Whatever My Lot: Is It Well With Your Soul?

         I have very often been referred to as “an old soul” and “old fashioned”, and I think my love for hymns may confirm that statement. There’s something so genuine and wholeheartedly worshipful about them that truly sets a fire of desire in my heart for the realest of worship in my relationship with Christ. They overflow so with the most grateful of praises, the truest, most devout devotion, the sweetest of glorification, and the deepest of love for the Savior. I find that something about the sweet passion in some of the old hymns is truly quite contagious, and you can’t help but want to pursue the mindset and love found in them for God. I love so many of them, but I think one that reaches out to my heart the very most is Horatio Spafford’s hymn, “It Is Well with My Soul”.

“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.

(Chorus)
 It is well (it is well),
with my soul (with my soul),pp
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.”

(“It Is Well with My Soul” – H. Spafford)

Spafford wrote this hymn after the death of his son and the 1871 Great Chicago Fire destroying almost all of real his estate investments. The words were written during his trip to be reunited with his wife Anna, who had just survived a shipwreck. While she was saved from the tragedy, the remainder of their children (four daughters) had been lost to the ocean. “When sorrows like sea billows roll..”

    Philippians 4:12-13 “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

   I think a lot of us can relate entirely with Paul when it comes to knowing what the face of Hard Times looks like. Spafford, with his many terrible losses definitely could. Yet I’m not so sure a lot of us can honestly say we have “…learned the secret of being content in any and every situation…” or have Spafford’s willingness to be “taught to say” with truth that “it is well with my soul…” when everything in our lives is in fact, not well at all.

     This girl has definitely beheld the face of Hard Times that life reveals to us now and then, and sometimes seemingly at every single turn and in every department. I know I have definitely not seen the last, but what I have seen and what I have gone through in my lil’ life, God has used to make me stronger, to teach me, draw my heart closer to his, and to reveal his steadfast faithfulness, mercy, grace, and deepest love for me.

One of my favorite theologians, Charles Spurgeon once said in one of his sermons,

“…If there is anything in this world for which I would bless Him more than for anything else it is for pain and affliction. I am sure that in these things the richest, tenderest love has been manifested towards me… Our Father’s wagons rumble most heavily when they are bringing us the richest freight of the bullion of His grace. Love letters from heaven are often sent in black-edged envelopes. The cloud that is black with horror is big with mercy. We may not ask for trouble, but if we were wise we should look upon it as the shadow of an unusually great blessing…Fear not the storm, it brings healing in its wings, and when Jesus is with you in the vessel the tempest only hastens the ship to its desired haven.”

    I am guilty through and through of not being content or not actually trusting God wholeheartedly in chaos. But, oh, the times when I have pursued The Lord most genuinely and sought his face most ardently, the peace that he can pour into your soul is that which cannot be obtained and filled through any other source. There is nothing quite like the “peace of God which surpasses all understading…” (Phil. 4:7) No matter the calamity.

“The peace + fulfillment of Jesus is literally so good that your bank account can be empty, your body be sick, and your heart be broken, but it can always be well with your soul.” – (*Inserts forgotten name of person who said this here*)

     Let us not become so weary of the burdens we carry, that we forget the one who can relieve us of them all. Provide strength through them all. Is in control of them all. Or so focused on that which goes on in our lives and all around us, our problems, our mess, our to do list, that our eyes turn away from the cross before us and to the world behind us.

“Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come…” May our blessed assurance keep us afloat, hopeful with the knowledge we posses, holding on to His faithful promises, and pursuing him relentlessly. So that “whatever my lot”, whatever our trials and circumstances, we can say “It is well with my soul”. //