Tonight was Thursday night Praise. I was extremely excited for it, because I love worshiping in song. It is a great release for me. It is a way in which I can stand before Jesus and let everything go. The second song we sang tonight was, "Peace Like a River."
I'm not sure if you know what inspired Horatio Spafford to write this song, but I'll go ahead and paraphrase. When his only son was four, he was killed by the scarlet fever. A year later, everything they had was ruined in a fire. Horatio then decided that his family needed a vacation. While his wife and his four daughters were traveling to England, their ship was struck by another ship and it sank. All four of his daughters drowned. All four. All of his children died. He quickly traveled to be with his survived wife. When he was traveling to meet her, he passed over the place where the death of his daughters occurred. That is when he wrote "Peace Like a River."
If someone can endure the death of all of his children and write a song about how despite the troubles and sorrows of this life, it is well with his soul....I can manage to continue to love Jesus and serve him despite the death of my father, broken relationships, sorrows, pain, struggles, etc. I'm not at all saying that it's easy. I am still so hurt, and the pain is still deep and my heart is still broken. But I can heal, and I can continue to serve my Lord. And despite my pain and sorrows now, it is still well with my soul. My soul can ache but still be loving and healing and trusting Jesus--who will one day come back for me, and everything will be worth it. All will be well with my soul.
There are two verses before the two I am going to post on here, and they are powerful verses as well, but the two I am going to post brought tears to my eyes and overwhelmed me.
"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!
And Lord, haste the day, when my faith shall be sight,
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
the trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
even so, it is well with my soul."
As I sang out these words out with a couple hundred other students in the Alumni Auditorium, with no music--just our voices, coming together as one only to praise our sweet Jesus, I was overwhelmed. How much better can it get?
ALL of our sin is nailed to the Cross, so that we DO NOT have to bear it any longer!!! What else can you do but praise the Lord for that?! But so often we fail. And even then, even the sin of turning to materialistic objects and ideas rather than God, is nailed to the cross. Praise him. Just praise him. Thank him right now, with everything you are. Give him thanks.
And to think that one, Glorious day is rapidly approaching, when the clouds. Will. Roll. Back! Can you imagine? The clouds will roll back, and the Lord will descend. We will see him coming with ALL of his GLORY. At that point, all of our struggles and brokenness and pain will be so worth it. It will be so well with our souls. Praise Jesus.
That will be a Happy, Happy day.
Get excited.
.JPG)
1 comment:
The first day I read this, I couldn't admit that "it" was well with my soul. At all. And, I knew that I didn't have reason for my soul to be unwell-- it certainly wasn't sick or messy, just not whole feeling.
However, those days of frustrating doubt come and go, and even before they pass, with lives being lived in truth and trust, like yours, I can believe it when I don't want to.
It is well with my soul. I love you.
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