Is it well?

It’s the call with the devastating news that stops time. It’s the discovery that you wish you could just cover back up. It’s the betrayal that cuts like a knife. It’s the rejection that keeps you up at night. It’s the hurt and pain that causes nightmares and flashbacks. It’s these life events that rock our soul and send us into states of depression, anxiety and maladaptive behaviours. 

Life can be beautiful and fun but it can also be very hard with shattered dreams or poverty. It can be hard being around jealous, manipulative and just mean people. Life can just be downright traumatic with illnesses, death, abuse, affairs, job losses, homelessness… sadly the list goes on. 

Unexpected challenges

For a moment imagine having a successful very well paid job and a healthy family that loves you and you love them. You don’t have to worry about not being able to afford things. Life is good. Then one day you lose everything you have built up in your business in a massive fire. You lose a fortune, everything you have worked so hard to build up is gone in one day. You are obviously upset and worried about finances but you think the main thing is that my family is ok and we have each other. Then just as you are processing this devastating fire, your son suddenly dies. 

This knocks you sideways, you have lost your young child, your only son. There is one thing losing your business and the finances that come with it, but to lose your young innocent child at the same time is just too much. 

After a couple of years, you decide that the rest of your family needs a holiday to get away from it all. You are rebuilding your business, so you tell your spouse to go on holiday with the children and you will join them shortly later. Your spouse agrees and they set off. You think about how the holiday will do everyone some good and you can’t wait to join them. Then just when you think this is the turning point in your life for the better, you receive the news that you never expected in a million years. Your spouse tells you all four of your children were killed on the way to their holiday destination. All your children are dead! How can you go from a successful, happy content life with five children to losing everything and everyone except your spouse!

Well this isn't just a made up story, this actually happened to someone and led to writing of a very well known worship song. In 1871, Horatio Spafford was a successful real estate investor and lawyer. He lost a fortune during the great fire of Chicago when most of his investments were destroyed. Then around the same time his four year old son suddenly died of scarlet fever. 

Two years later, Horatio thought it would be good for the family to go on holiday to England. Due to his business demands, his wife and four daughters went to England and he would join them shortly after. However, the ship that they were travelling on sank. 200 people died, including Horatio’s four daughters. When Horatio received the devastating news, he got on a ship to England to join his wife Anna who was alone.

On the way, the captain of the ship, who was aware of what had happened to Horatio’s daughters, asked for Horatio to come to him. The captain showed Horatio the spot where the ship sank and his daughters died. As Horatio looked out at the spot in the ocean, he felt the need to write the following words:

“When peace like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll—

Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to know

It is well, it is well with my soul”

These words became the start of the well known and loved hymn called It Is Well With My Soul. If you go to church you may sing this song on a regular basis. 

Lyrics

Lets look at the song’s lyrics:

“Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say

It is well, it is well, with my soul”

In biblical times people would cast lots to decide what life decision to make. They would use stones, draw straws and flip coins to make the decision. Believers and non believers both did this. Believers believed that the result of casting lots was God’s decision. 

"Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh in the presence of the Lord, and there he distributed the land to the Israelites according to their tribal divisions." - Joshua 18:10

There are examples of casting lots in the Bible. Joshua did it to decide the land that people got. The men on the ship that Jonah was on cast lots to discover who brought God’s wrath to them. The Roman soldiers also cast lots to decide who got Jesus' clothes when he was crucified. 

“When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots”. - Matthew 27:35

So in the song Horatio is saying whatever God has decided for him in his life, good or bad, he is at peace with it. His soul is well.

“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord”. - Proverbs 16:33

The next verse starts with::

“Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come”

When Horatio is talking about Satan and buffet, he isn’t talking about Satan taking you to an “all you can eat” buffet restaurant! Even though that is something Satan might do because he wants us to open the spiritual door to gluttony through daily over eating of unhealthy food but that’s a whole other blog post! 

The other definition for the word “buffet” is to hit something repeatedly and with great force. What Horatio is talking about when saying “buffet” in the song, is that Satan has continuously attacked him through the trials of attacking his business, his finances, killing all five of his children and traumatising his wife in the shipwreck. 

“The thief* comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it to the full"- John 10:10  (*The thief is Satan).

However, even with the spiritual attacks from Satan that could mentally destroy the strongest of people, in the next part of the song Horatio wrote this:

“Let this blest assurance control

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate

And hath shed His own blood for my soul"

"It is well (it is well)

With my soul (with my soul)

It is well, it is well with my soul”

Horatio was saying that regardless of the constant attacks from Satan, losing his finances and missing his children, he still had blessed assurance. This means that Horatio had total 100% faith that Jesus Christ had saved his soul through Jesus shedding his blood on the cross for Horatio’s soul. Therefore no matter what Satan does to Horatio or what he takes from him, it will ultimately be ok because Jesus Christ is with him. Jesus Christ gives Horatio access to God the Father and gives him the gift of the Holy Spirit. This makes Horatio’s soul well. 

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body” - Hebrews 10:19-20

Some people go on to blame themselves at times like this. However Horatio wrote the next verse:

“My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!

My sin, not in part but the whole

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, o my soul!”

Horatio knew that all of his sins were nailed to the cross when Jesus was nailed to the cross. All of the sins he had repented for, as well as future sin that he would repent for would be wiped away because sinless Jesus took on Horatio’s sins as a sacrifice. 

Repenting isn’t just saying sorry but is confessing to God the bad habits, sinful thoughts and sinful actions you did and telling God that you will change your thinking so you won’t want to do it again. Then you will actively try not to do it again. 

“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out” - Acts 3:19

We have to repent to God daily because we are all flawed humans, yes including you, who mess up and do bad habits whether it’s gossiping, having lustful thoughts, lying, being unforgiving, having hate in our heart, sexual immortality (sex outside of marriage) and being jealous. It’s not just the things that society classes as very bad sins like adultery or murder. The main thing is once we realise what we are doing, God expects us to turn away from the actions and behaviour so we don’t do it anymore. In God’s eyes sin is sin no matter how “big” or “small”, as Jesus said in the gospel of Mark in the Bible:

“For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly”-  Mark 7:21-22

"Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil."-  1 John 3:8 

Horatio knew that he wouldn’t have to bear the weight of his sins anymore because God the Father had forgiven his sins through Jesus Christ. 

Horatio knew that because his sins had been wiped away, he didn’t have to blame himself for these particular tragedies and challenges. It wasn’t his past sins that caused it because as a believer and follower of Christ, his past sins were nailed to the cross with Jesus. He knew that it was Satan’s schemes to get Horatio to break mentally, by blaming himself or blaming God. Satan wanted Horatio to blame literally anyone except the true cause of the destruction, who was Satan.

“Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” -  Ephesians 6:11-12

Facing storms

Like Horatio, we will go through storms. There will be periods of our lives when we will go through challenge after challenge. It will feel relentless. It will be hard, you will cry your heart out and wonder how you will get through it all and when will it all end? There’s nothing wrong with being upset, being sad, being angry, crying daily for a period of time because you are so traumatised and questioning situations. This is all part of processing trauma. Our life challenges are all trauma to you in some way or another. The question is once you have let all your emotions out, what will you do?

We can’t stop bad things happening to us. Satan is constantly scheming and he will use people he has access to to inflict harm on you and your family. This can be through direct harm or indirectly through someone, who Satan has influenced, to make a decision which starts a chain of events which leads to harm to you and your loved ones. 

Satan tempting Eve, then Adam allowing Eve's temptation to become a sinful action, led to sin entering the world. With that came illnesses and death. Everlasting life on Earth in its current state ended when Satan convinced Eve to sin. 

So back to my question. Once you have let out your emotions around your trauma, what will you do? Well, you and anyone else experiencing challenges have two options: 

1. We can sit in our trauma for the rest of our lives, re-living it in a constant loop, letting it become our identity and keeping hate in our heart and soul. All this will do is allow Satan to open your spiritual door to continuously feed you lies about you, your life, about God and keep you stuck in the past. Satan will make sure that your soul isn’t well, even when your life starts to improve. All this is done, so you can’t be the person God wants you to be and achieve the things that God wants you to achieve.

   
   

2. We can accept that challenges have happened, that they hurt you, they let you down, that the illness really affected you, that it wasn’t fair that they died, that you will always miss them and that it wasn't fair that they walked out on you.

   We can process the challenges, the trauma and the grief through therapy, support groups and prayer if you are a believer of Christ. Then we have to lean into God the Father, through Christ, so the Holy Spirit can give us inner peace and contentment, during our challenges and after. So our souls can be well.

If you don’t know Jesus or you know Him and haven’t fully surrendered to Him. Then it’s never too late for you to have inner peace and contentment around the uncontrollable chaos in your life. All you have to do is let God the Father into your life and receive the Holy Spirit. You do this by:

1. Believing that Jesus is the Son of God, lived a sinless life and died on the cross to take away all our sins. This is because God the Father knew that we would never stop sinning and that we needed a sacrifice in the human form of Jesus, God the Son, to take our sins away. 

   
   

2. Accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and saviour.

   
   

3. Repenting of all your past sins and bad habits (not just physical actions but also things like unforgiveness and hate) and telling God that you will turn away from these behaviours and actions. Then continuing to repent whenever a bad habit slips back into your life. You do this during your prayers to God the Father, through Jesus Christ. No one else on this planet can pass your repenting message on to God the Father for you. Jesus Christ is the only one who has been given authority to pass your repenting message on to God the Father. Your repenting is purely between you, God the Father and The Son.

4. Letting God work on changing you for the better, from the inside out. He will lead you to make the right decisions in life, help you break bad habits and will give you inner peace like you have never felt before.

Doing this will be the best decision you can make. Not only do you receive the free gift of salvation, which is going to heaven when you die and then having eternal life on the renewed Earth with Jesus when He returns; but you will also develop a beautiful and powerful relationship with God right now. This develops during your prayer time and when reading His Word in the Bible. You will hear Him guide you, comfort you and protect you, which is surreal, beautiful and exciting. You will naturally want to be obedient to God and live your life in the way the Bible sets out because you know that your heavenly Father loves you and you don’t want to disappoint Him.

So it wasn't just Horatio Spafford who could feel peace and contentment during hurt, trauma and Satan’s attacks. We all can too. Horatio wrote in his song that his sins were nailed on the cross with Jesus. Jesus did this for all of us, including you, yes you! Jesus shed His blood on the cross for YOU. When you give your sins to Christ, the Father gives you His righteousness. It’s not your natural righteousness because our natural righteous acts will never be good enough (see Isaiah 64:6). God loves you so much that He gives you His righteousness.

God said that He will never leave you or forsake you, so whatever you go through in life, no matter who leaves your life, remember that God will always be with you, walking with you through it. With that knowledge and faith you can have inner peace in your mind and soul, as you navigate the challenges and start the healing process.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” - Deuteronomy 31:6

If you want to listen to the beautiful song, that is “It is Well With My Soul”, you can here.