It Is Well With My Soul

Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT) —

‘Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.’

‘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.’’

It Is Well with My Soul, written in 1873, is another beautiful hymn that has inspired countless worship songs. it calls us to find true peace and rest in God through hardship and suffering just as Paul calls the Philippians to let go of worry and welcome the ‘peace that exceeds anything we can understand’.

The writer, Horatio G. Spafford, was a wealthy American attorney and dealer in real estate but also a man of deep faith who knew the unpredictable nature of suffering and loss. In 1870 he lost his young son to scarlet fever and a year later he lost a great fortune in a fire. After deciding to take some much-needed respite, he sent his wife and four daughters ahead of him to England, planning to join them later. However, during his family’s Atlantic crossing their ship collided with another and sank. Horatio’s wife miraculously survived but his four daughters drowned.

Horatio set sail for England to be with his wife. As his ship crossed the Atlantic the captain notified him that they were passing the location where his daughters had lost their lives. It is reported that as he passed that point the words ‘It is well, it is well with my soul’ filled his mind. He wrote them down and his personal story of finding that unexplainable peace from God has given voice to countless people’s search for the same peace.

I don’t know what you’re walking through at the moment, but I believe every single one of us needs to experience more of God’s inexpressible, unexplainable peace and joy. 

Google/YouTube It Is Well with My Soul today. Offer up any worry, burdens, pain or unrest to God and ask him to fill you with his peace beyond all understanding.